Joseph Mallord William Turner ra 
1775–1851

Judy Egerton, 2000

Extracted from:
Judy Egerton, The British Paintings (London: National Gallery Company and Yale University Press, 2000).

Born in London 23 April 1775, son of a barber. Largely self‐taught, working first in watercolour; early employment as assistant to the architectural draughtsman Thomas Malton consolidated his grasp of structure and perspective. Entered the Royal Academy Schools 1789; first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1790 (a watercolour), showing his first oil (a marine) there in 1796. Elected ARA 1799 and RA in 1802, at the uniquely early age of 26, recognised by then as a painter of huge potential with an ambition to rival the old masters.

Turner’s output in both watercolour and oils was vast, and his choice of subjects – landscape, classical literature and history, modern poetry and contemporary life – extraordinarily wide. He exhibited regularly at the RA up to 1850. The Academy itself, which he served loyally, became the sheet‐anchor in his otherwise largely solitary, unsociable life. Travelled widely, both in Britain and (when peace allowed) abroad, frequently commissioned by print‐publishers to paint topographical watercolours, engraved for such series as Picturesque Views in England and Wales (1827–38) and Wanderings by the Seine (Turner’s Annual Tour, 1834); during the 1830s, also painted vignette illustrations to the works of Thomas Campbell, Samuel Rogers, Byron, Sir Walter Scott and Thomas Moore.

After sitting next to Turner at an RA dinner in 1813, Constable noted ‘he is uncouth but has a wonderfull range of mind’. That ‘range of mind’, combined with deeply poetic imagery and frequently idiosyncratic technique, baffled and exasperated contemporary reviewers, who often mocked his work. Turner never lacked patrons, and discerning collectors were ready to pay very high prices for his work. But Turner, who had earned a fortune – and with it, complete independence – began during the 1820s to retain major works, sometimes, as with Sun rising through Vapour (NG 479), buying them back in the saleroom, for eventual bequest to the nation. The incomplete realisation of Turner’s intentions was largely due to the fact that his will was contested by relatives. Litigation was finally resolved by an out‐of‐court settlement confirmed by a Court of Chancery decree (19 March 1856), whereby the nation (in effect the National Gallery) was deemed to be the heir of all paintings and drawings by Turner which had remained with him at his death on 19 December 1851, whether finished or unfinished. Thus 100 ‘finished pictures’, 182 ‘unfinished pictures’ and 19,049 ‘drawings and sketches in colour and in pencil’ entered the National Gallery’s collection.

After the foundation in 1897 of the Tate Gallery as the national collection of British art, the larger part of what is now known as the Turner Bequest was gradually transferred to the Tate Gallery, the National Gallery retaining ten of the oil paintings.

References

Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, 2 vols, text and plates, London 1977, revised edn 1984; Andrew Wilton, The Life and Work of J.M.W. Turner (including a catalogue of over 1600 watercolours), London 1979; ed. John Gage, Collected Correspondence of J.M.W Turner, Oxford 1980.

The literature on Turner is voluminous. For particular aspects of his work, see the Tate Gallery’s continuing series of studious exhibition catalogues; see also Turner Studies, published by the Tate Gallery (11 vols, 1981–91).