As the Museum of Modern Art expands its 53rd Street home, it is also embarking on a serious initiative to refine its permanent collection. Read more..
One century, five decades and one year after the death of the English painter J. M. W. Turner, we are still grappling with his immense achievement. Read more..
Joseph Mallord William Turner The English painter
1775
Joseph Mallord William Turner born to William Turner, barber and wig-maker and Mary
Marshall at 21 Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, London. His birth-date is still uncertain, but
he maintained that it was 23 April, the Feast of St George, patron of England, and also
Shakespeare’s birthday.
1784-5
Turner with his maternal uncle and aunt at Brentford, Middlesex, attending John White’s
school and colouring engravings. First surviving drawings from nature, in and around
Margate, on the Kent coast.
1786
Death of Turner’s sister, Mary Ann, aged 8.
1787
First signed and dated watercolour, a copy of an engraving of Bacon’s Tower, Oxford.
1788
? Working with the architectural draughtsman, Thomas Malton, and the architect,
Thomas Hardwick.
1789
Sketching from nature while staying with his maternal uncle at Sunning well, near
Oxford.
11th December: Admitted to the Plaister Academy of the Royal Academy Schools, under
the sponsorship of J.F.Rigaud, R.A., and after a terms probation.
1790
First exhibit at the R.A., a watercolour of ‘The Archbishop’s Palace, Lambeth’,
commissioned by Hardwick to make a replica.
1791
Two watercolours at the R.A.
Colouring prints for engravers and print-sellers.
Sketching in and around Bristol, Bath and Malmsbury while staying with his father’s
friend, John Narraway, the purchaser of ‘The Archbishop’s Palace, Lambeth’.
Studying perspective and copying a Gainsborough print.
1792
March: ? First contact with John Soane, the architect.
May: Two watercolours at the R.A.
25 June: Admitted to the R.A. Life Class.
July/August: Touring in North and central Wales.
? Earliest contact with the watercolourist W.F.Wells.
1793
27 March: Awarded ‘Great Silver Palette’ by the Society of Arts, for landscape drawing.
May: Three watercolours at the R.A.
First documented contact with Dr Thomas Monro
? First experiments with oil painting.
Begins to study etching techniques by this date.
1794
May: First engraving after a Turner drawing of Rochester, published in the Copper Plate
Magazine. A large oil of Rochester Castle also seems to date from this year.
Five watercolours at the R.A., praised in St James’s Chronicle and Morning Post.
First recorded activity as a drawing-master.
Sells three versions of Llanthony Abbey for 2.5 guineas each.
First Midland tour, chiefly to make drawings for engraving.
Met Thomas Girtin at Monro’s evening ‘Academy’, making joint versions of designs by
J.R.Cozens, Thomas Hearne and others.
1795
May: Eight watercolours at R.A.
Tours in Sth.Wales and the Isle of Wight produce commissions for engravers and several
private collectors, including Viscount Malden and Sir Richard Colt Hoare.
1796
May: Ten watercolours at R.A., including ‘Internal of a Cottage, a study at Ely’, the first
clear reference to an Old Master style. First exhibited oil, ‘Fishermen at Sea off the
Needles’, praised by ‘Anthony Pasquin’ and sold for £10.
Sketching on the estate of William Lock of Norbury and in and around Brighton.
1797
May: Teaching drawing to Julia Bennett, later Lady Gordon. Two oils and four
watercolours, including ‘Trancept of Ewenny Priory, Glamorganshire’ at R.A.
Touring N. England, including Lake District; working at Harewood.
1798
November: Competes unsuccessfully for Associate Membership of R.A.
15 November: Buys large collection of figure-studies by C.R.Ryley.
1799
April: Recommended to Lord Elgin to make topographical drawings in Greece;
disagreement over terms and plan dropped.
May: Goes to see Altieri Claudes at Beckford’s London house. Four oils and seven
watercolours at R.A.; sells water-colour of ‘Caernarvon Castle’ to J.J. Angerstein for 40
guineas, ‘much greater than Turner would have asked’.
July: Has orders for sixty drawings in hand.
August/September: Working for Beckford at Fonthill.
Autumn: Tour of Lancashire, sometimes in the company of Fuseli, and North Wales.
4 November: Elected Associate of R.A.; joins Academy Club; moves to 64, Harley
Street, London, sharing with marine-painter, J.T.Serres.
First substantial essays in poetry, including glees of the type written by John Danby,
whose widow, Sarah becomes Turner’s mistress at this time. ?birth of Evalina, the first of
Turner’s three children by Sarah Danby.
1800
May: Two oils, ‘The Fifth Plague of Egypt’ and ‘Dolbadern Castle, North Wales’, whose
verse-caption may be by Turner, shown at R.A. with six watercolours, five of them of
Fonthill.
17 May: Dines with other Academicians at Fuseli’s Milton Gallery.
Summer: Visits Fonthill; commissioned by Duke of Bridgewater to paint companion
(’Dutch Boats in a Gale: Fishermen endeavouring to put their Fish on Board’) to a
Willem van de Velde II, ‘A Rising Gale’.
27 December: Turner’s mother admitted to the Bethlem Hospital for the insane, where Dr
Thomas Monro is physician.
1801
March: Attends Fuseli’s lecture on Painting at the R.A.
April/May: Buys group of 8 drawings of barges by Samuel Scott and large number of
Rooker topographical drawings at Rooker Sale.
May: Two oils and four watercolours at the R.A. ‘Dutch Boats in a Gale…’ praised by
Benjamin West, Fuseli and Sir George Beaumont as superior to Rembrandt, and sold for
250 guineas.
June/August: Tour in Scotland, perhaps with Nicholas Smith of 42 Gower Street,
London; returns through Lake District and Chester.
1802
12 February: Elected full Academician; ‘W.Turner’ becomes ‘J.M.W.Turner’.
May: Three watercolours and three oils at the R.A., including ‘Ships bearing up for
anchorage’ acquired by the third Earl of Egremont, and ‘Jason’, the first exhibited
classical subject.
July/October: Visits France and Switzerland, probably with the sponsorship of the Earl of
Yarborough and Walter Fawkes who may have accompanied him; some weeks spent in
the Louvre; visits studios of David and Guérin.
November: Attends Girtin’s funeral.
December: Applies to be a Visitor (instructor) in Academy Schools.
Presents a dozen silver desert spoons to the Academy.
1803
Member of Academy Council and of Hanging Committee (Jury).
February: Reported that ‘had no pictures, gone as fast as he paints them, commissions for
twenty years’.
February/March: Attending Fuseli’s lectures on painting.
May: Two watercolours and five oils at R.A., including his first Claudian subject,
‘Macon’ ; Beaumont and several Academicians critical of his lack of finish.
First substantial review of Turner’s work, by John Britton in The British Press (9 May).
August: Visits Truchsessian Gallery in London.
1804
Member of R.A. Council.
15 April: Death of Turner’s mother, probably in Bethlem Hospital.
18 April: Turner’s Private Gallery opened in Queen Anne Street, London.
May: Two oils and one watercolour at R.A.
1805
May: First record of Turner at Sion Ferry House, Isleworth.
May/July: ‘The Shipwreck’ exhibited at Turner’s gallery; acquired by Sir J. Leicester for
£315; the first oil to be engraved and the first large single plate after Turner’s work;
impressions sold to some 130 subscribers. Other exhibits (unspecified) described by
Hoppner as ‘like a Green Stall, so rank, crude and disordered’.
22 December: Sketches ‘Victory’ on return from Trafalgar to the Medway.
1806
February: Two oils at first exhibition of British Institution.
May: One oil and one watercolour at R.A.; first important sign of a Turner ‘School’ in the
work of W. Havell and A.W.Callcott. ‘Battle of Trafalgar’ among paintings at Turner
gallery.
15 May: Last record of Turner at Sion Ferry House.
Summer: Staying with W.F.Wells; genesis of Liber Studiorum.
7 August: Congratulates Lord Elgin on the acquisition of the Parthenon Marbles.
Winter: Takes a house at 6 West End, Upper Mall, Hammersmith.
1807
20 April: Attends Opie’s funeral.
May: Two oils at the R.A.
4 May: Buys a plot of building-land at Twickenham. Thames views shown at Turner
Gallery; West calls them ‘crude blotches’.
11 June: First number of Liber Studiorum published.
Oil-sketching from a boat on the Thames and the Wey.
A subscriber to John Opie’s ‘Lectures on Painting’ (published 1809).
2 November: Elected Professor of Perspective at R.A..
First independent French notice of Turner in Magazin Encyclopédique.
1808
February: Two oils at British Institution (including ‘Jason’).
May: ‘The Unpaid Bill’ at R.A. Long review by John Landseer in Review of Publications
of Art identifies twelve oils at Turner’s gallery, together with Liber Studiorum drawings.
Summer: At Tabley. Cheshire with Sir J. Leicester; sketches on the River Dee in Wales;
studies reflections for Perspective Lectures; ? visits Farnley Hall, home of Walter
Fawkes.
First German notice, in J.D. Fiorillo, Geschichte der zeichnenden Künste, V.
1808
March: Helping Soane with the presentation of his Academy lectures on architecture.
May: Two watercolours and six oils shown at Turner Gallery, including ‘Thompson’s
Aeolian Harp’.
Four oils shown at R.A.
Summer: Visit to Petworth, Sussex, home of Lord Egremont.
August: Visit to Yorkshire; possibly with Fawkes at Farnley. ? Visits Egremont at
Cockermouth Castle, Cumberland.
December: Shows plans for a new design for lighting R.A. Lecture Room. Visits Oxford
in connection with works for engraving.
CURRENTS: ARCHITECTURE; A Fitting Memorial to Turner by the Sea He Loved to Paint
Snohetta, Norwegian architectural firm, and Spence Associates of London win competition to build Turner Center, museum to honor painter J M W Turner in Margate, England; drawing; photo (S)…
ARTS BRIEFING
Arts Briefing; astronomers calculate that on July 13 moon will rise over southern French village in just same position as when van Gogh painted Evening Landscape with Rising Moon in 1889; Elvis Presley memorabilia to go on display in Liverpool under auspices of Beatles Story museum; Clark Art Institute to show Turner seascapes; Somerset House in London to show early photos of St Petersburg from Hermitage collection; 18th season of SummerStage to open in New York’s Central Park; photos; tenors Salvatore Licitra and Marcelo Alvarez to perform in Rome’s Colosseum; Bang on a Can Festival set for Symphony Space (S)…
Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) was not only Britain’s greatest painter but arguably the finest landscape and marine painter ever. Turner was enormously prolific, producing some 550 oil paintings, over 2,000 highly detailed and finely finished watercolours, and some 30,000 works on paper. His bequest to the nation of much of this output is without doubt the greatest artistic legacy ever bestowed upon the United Kingdom. It is housed in Tate Britain, London.
A Pair of Stolen Turners Are Returned to the Tate
Two paintings by J. M. W. Turner have been returned to the Tate Gallery in London eight years after they were stolen from an exhibition in Germany.
A Censorship Story Goes Up in Smoke; No Bonfire Devoured J.M.W. Turner’s Erotica
A curator at the Tate Britain has concluded that the prudish Victorian critic John Ruskin did not set fire to erotic drawings by the artist J. M. W. Turner.
THE TURNER SOCIETY
The Turner Society was founded in 1975 on the bicentenary of the birth of J.M.W. Turner RA to promote interest in the life, work and influence of Britain’s greatest painter.
It offers a full programme of events. These include lectures by leading experts on the artist; visits to the Clore Gallery for the Turner Collection in London; and trips to important private collections not generally open to the public.
http://www.turnersociety.org.uk/events.htm
INSIDE ART
As the Museum of Modern Art expands its 53rd Street home, it is also embarking on a serious initiative to refine its permanent collection.
CURRENTS: ARCHITECTURE; A Fitting Memorial to Turner by the Sea He Loved to Paint
Snohetta, Norwegian architectural firm, and Spence Associates of London win competition to build Turner Center, museum to honor painter J M W Turner in Margate, England; drawing; photo (S)…
Classical Sociological Theory (Paperback) newly tagged “joseph mallord william turner”
Classical Sociological Theory (Paperback)
By Craig Calhoun
Joseph Mallord William Turner went to Venice, in 1819, 1833, and 1840, spending only a total of about four weeks there. Even in that brief time the city cast its spell over him.
Who Paid $35.8 Million for Turner’s Vision of Venice?
Stephen A. Wynn, the Las Vegas casino owner and collector, bought J. M. W. Turner's "Giudecca, La Donna Della Salute and San Giorgio."
TRAVEL ADVISORY; Turner Seascapes To Visit Baltimore
Exhibit of works by late British landscape artist J M W Turner is set to open at Baltimore Museum of Art (S)…
A Pair of Stolen Turners Are Returned to the Tate
Two paintings by J. M. W. Turner have been returned to the Tate Gallery in London eight years after they were stolen from an exhibition in Germany.
Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) was one of the greatest romantic interpreters of nature