Who is Turner?
Born onApril 23,1775,John Mallord William Turner,is
considered the first iimpressionist. A letter signed
by Monet,Pissorrao,Degas,Renoir and others says as much,”A group of French painters,united oin the same aesthetic aims… applying themselves with passin to the rendering of form in movement as well as the fugitive pehenomena of ight,cannot forget that they have been preceded inthis ath by a greate master of the English,the illustrious turner.” Turner,the son of a baber was something of a rodigy-exhibiting his work at the Royal Academy when he was merely 15. He had his studio whenhe was 18 and was member of the RouyalAcademy at 27. He travelled extensively in Europe.
Considered one of the founders f English watercolour
painting. Turner experimented withlight and colour and the theory that yellow ws the closest colour towhite light in painting. Turner captured the elements-be in the raging sea or flashes of lightning on an increasingly inventive canvas. Turner was in the habit of putting the crucialfinishing touches to a painting after it was hung up. In the words of Charles Eastlake,none ogf his “Poictures could be had worked onthem whenthey were on the walls of Royal Academy.” Turner Grew eccentric with age and apart formhis father,with whom he lived for 30 years,met nobody. In1850 he exhibited for the last time. He disappeared and after manymonths,his housekeeper found him hiding in a cottage in Chelsea. He died the next day on December 19,1851. He bequeathed his considerable colelctin of works to his nation.