Joseph Mallord William Turner: Romantic Disasters 1775-1851

Joseph Mallord William Turner was among the Romantics group of artists. He was a colorist printmaker and painter. He was the son of a wig-maker and a mentally unstable mother. Turner spent very little time in his parents' home growing up. At age 14, his intellect and talent for drawing got him into the Royal Academy School. His first exhibition was in 1790. All of his early works were watercolor landscapes; Turner was painting in oils by 1796. He became a full member of the Royal Academy in 1802.

Turner spent the rest of his life developing his style He studied nature through travelling extensively. Turner travelled in Europe: France, Italy and Switzerland. He studied in the Louvre in Paris.

Inspiration for Turner's work was in the subjects of shipwrecks, fires (the burning of Parliament in 1834 which Turner personally witnessed), natural disasters, sunlight, fog, storms, and the ocean.

Turner's printmaking oeuvre was entitled: the Liber Studiorum (Book of Studies). It was a set of seventy prints that he worked on during 1806 to 1819. The Liber Studiorum was an illustration of his intention for the future of landscape art. Turner churned out an incredible number of drawings and paintings. However, he was not always interested in selling his work. He sometimes repurchased previously sold paintings. His last exhibition at the Royal Academy was in 1850.

There is little known about his private life as he was intensely private person and did not marry. In late life, his work became more and more unstructured and unstable...much like his health, as deteriorated into alcoholism. He became more and more reclusive. Turner became more and more ill with alcoholism; his diet consisted of mainly rum and milk. He bought a house and the housekeeper was the only one who knew him. She never knew his real name, or that he was a wealthy and famous man. Turner left the house to her when he died. When he went to the pub he would say he was an impoverished naval officer named Admiral Booth. He died in the house of his mistress Sophia Caroline Booth in Chelsea on 19 December 1851. He was buried in St Paul's Cathedral.

Shortly before his last breath was taken, Turner uttered:
"It is through these eyes, closed forever at the bottom of the tomb, that generations as yet unborn will see nature." Turner bequeathed all 30,000 pieces of his art work to the British Nation.

Melissa Montgomery