Turner

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851), known as “the painter of light,” remains one of the greatest masters of English Romantic landscape painting. Born in London to a modest family, he demonstrated precocious talent and entered the Royal Academy at just 14, becoming the youngest artist ever admitted to this prestigious institution. Turner gradually developed a revolutionary style, evolving from traditional topographical landscape toward an increasingly abstract and expressive approach where light, color, and atmosphere took precedence over descriptive detail. An tireless traveler, he journeyed across Europe to capture fleeting light effects on landscapes, seascapes, and historical scenes, creating works of striking modernity such as “Rain, Steam and Speed” and his celebrated Venetian sunsets. Misunderstood by many contemporaries who sometimes mockingly called him “Professor of Daubs,” Turner bequeathed over 19,000 works to the British nation upon his death and profoundly influenced the French Impressionists, prefiguring modern 20th-century art through his chromatic boldness and freedom of execution.

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