Page:Cyclopedia of painters and paintings (IA cyclopediaofpain04cham).pdf/327
in New York. Works: Scene on Grand Canal—Dordrecht, Nooning (1882); Merry Milkmaid, T. B. Clarke, New York; Gone a-Milking, Harvest Meal, Preparing for Yearly Meeting (1883); Woman tending Flowers in a Garden, Sunday Afternoon, Ruth Huckaback, Courtship of Miles Standish (1884); Half Hours with the Poets, Emblem of Mortality (1885); Bridal Procession, Queen of the Montauks (1886).
TURNER, JOSEPH MALLORD WILLIAM,
born in London,
April 23, 1775, died
there, Dec. 19, 1851.
Son of a hairdresser, in
whose rooms his drawings
were first exhibited;
entered schools
of Royal Academy in
1789, studied perspective
under Thomas
Malton, and architecture
drawing with
Hardwick; also worked with Girtin and
others, in house of Dr. Monro, the art patron,
for whom he made drawings. He frequently
made excursions into the country,
sketching views and making studies of river
scenery, many in water-colours, but some
in pencil. In 1799, when he became an
A.R.A., he had exhibited works from twenty-six
different counties in England and Wales.
He became an R.A. in 1802, and about the
same time visited Scotland, France, and
Switzerland. Some of his best pictures in oil
were exhibited after his return. In 1807 he
became professor of perspective in the Royal
Academy, and began his Liber Studiorum,
a book of sketches in monochrome, in imitation
of the Liber Veritatis of Claude, in
emulation of whose style he painted about
this time. Turner visited Italy three times—in
1819, in 1829, and in 1840. After a life
of almost unrivalled success, in which he
won all the honours his art could give, and
accumulated a large fortune, he died unmarried,
leaving his pictures to the nation
and his funded property to found an institution
for decayed artists. Thus the National
Gallery came into possession of more than
a hundred of his finished pictures, two of
which, Sun rising in a Mist, and Dido
building Carthage, were bequeathed on
condition that they be hung between two
Claudes. Previous to 1802 Turner was
most remarkable in water-colour painting,
the development of which is largely due to
him. Between that time and his second
visit to Italy he was distinguished for
masterly execution and brilliant colouring.
Most of his finest works belong to this
period. During the last twenty years of his
life he sacrificed form to colour; light, with
its prismatic variations, seeming to have
engrossed all his attention. "He went,"
says Ruskin, "to the cataract for its iris, to
the conflagration for its flames, asked of the
sea its intensest azure, of the sky its clearest
gold." Turner exhibited 257 paintings
and drawings at the Royal Academy, besides
which he left many sketches, etchings, and
book illustrations. His "Southern Coast
Scenery," "England and Wales," "Rivers
of France," and "Rogers's Italy," are monuments
of his genius and taste. Works:
Moonlight (1797), Buttermere Lake (1798),
Morning on Coniston Fells (1798), Æneas
with the Sibyl (1800), Mountain Scene
(1800), View in Wales (1800), Fishing Boats
in a Breeze (1801), portrait of himself
(1802), Clapham Common (1802), Tenth
Plague of Egypt (1802), Jason in search of
Golden Fleece (1802), Calais Pier (1803),
Holy Family (1803), Destruction of Sodom
(1805), Shipwreck (1805), Goddess of Discord
(1806), Blacksmith's Shop (1807), Sun
rising in Mist (1807), Death of Nelson
(1808), Spithead (1809), Garreteer's Petition
(1809), London from Greenwich (1809),
Harvest Dinner (1809), Bligh Sand (1809),
St. Mawes (1809), Ruin (1809), Abingdon
(1810), Windsor (1810), Apollo killing Python
(1811), Hannibal crossing the Alps
(1812), Cottage destroyed by Avalanche
(1812), Frosty Morning (1813), Deluge
(1813), Dido and Æneas (1814), Apuleia in