His Early Life

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) was an English Romantic painter and watercolourist. He is famous for imaginative landscapes and turbulent, often violent marine paintings. He left behind more than 550 oil paintings, 2000 watercolours and 30000 works on paper. Turner was born in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, London, into a modest lower-middle-class family. He enrolled at the Royal Academy of Arts when he was 14 and studied there from 1789. Turner exhibited his first work when he was 15. During this period he also served as an architectural draftsman. He earned a steady income from commissions and sales and opened his own gallery in 1804. He became a lecturer of perspective at the academy in 187 and lectured until 1828.

His famous painting ‘Snow Storm, Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth’.

Joseph Mallord William Turner was a prominent English artist from the early 19th century. One of his main areas of focus while subjects for his paintings was the various degrees of changing weather. His most famous paintings depict fog or clouds forming around a mountain valley. He also created works that show wild snowstorms on both seas and overland. Turner’s most famous painting depicting storm is a work titled ‘Snow Storm, Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth’.

An inscription on the painting read saying that ‘the author was in this Storm on the Night the ‘Ariel’ left Harwich. Turner later described his experience, saying that he convinced the sailors to lash him to the mast so he could observe the storm in a first-person perspective’. John Ruskin, the famed art critic described the painting as one of the ‘grandest statements of sea-motion, mist and light, that has ever been put on canvas’.

‘The Slave Ship’

Turner’s other famous work depicting a raging storm is titled ‘The Slave Ship’ and was done in 1840. It is considered to be one of the most highly-praised examples of maritime paintings from the Romantic movement. The painting depicts churning waves and tumultuous waters in the foreground with a large slave ship visible in the background. This painting was done at a time when there were other significant efforts being made to abolish the slave trade in Europe and other regions. A large ominous storm is seen in the left portion of the canvas, which indicates an oncoming typhoon. The ship’s sails are furled which is standard practice when facing an approaching storm.

A Pessimist and lived a Morose Life

Turner was a controversial figure throughout his career. He did not marry but fathered two daughters by his housekeeper. He became more and more pessimistic and morose as grew older, especially after the death of his father. His outlook deteriorated and his gallery fell into disrepair and neglect. Turner rowed a boat into the Thames so he could not be counted as living at any property in that year’s census. His health suffered and lived in squalor from 1845. He died in London in 1851 aged 76.

His Famous Paintings

‘The Slave Ship’, ‘Tintern Abbey’, ‘Hannibal Crossing the Alps’, ‘Rain, Steam and Speed – The Great Western Railway’, ‘Calais Pier’, ‘Dutch Boats in a Gale’, ‘Snow Storm; Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps’, ‘Dort or Dordrecht: The Dort packet-boat from Rotterdam becalmed’, ‘The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons’, ‘Wreckers Coast of Northumberland’, ‘The fighting Temeraire tugged to her last berth to be broken up’, ‘Snow Storm: Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth’, ‘Norham Castle, Sunrise’, ‘Venice The Dogana and San Giorgio Maggiore’ are some of the famous paintings of William Turner.