Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775 - 1851) — English painter of water, air and fire, a master of light compositions who made light the main focus of his paintings. Subsequently, his late artwork became a source of inspiration for the Impressionists and abstractionists.
The importance of William Turner's paintings for world painting can hardly be overestimated - without them, perhaps, there were no Impressionists and the development would have followed a completely different path.
Fire in the Parliament building on October 16, 1834
Beginning artwork on the painting, Turner first painted the element itself - something raging, uncontrollable, without a definite form and only then created a composition, delineated the boundaries of this element. It was the combination of raging and familiar so attracted many in the work of Turner. And it was easy for him to write the elements, perhaps because of his character and cool temperament, he resembled them, despite the fact that he was a native of England. About the cool temper, difficult personal life and amazing pictures of Joseph Turner we will talk about in this article.
Joseph Turner. Self-portrait.
Turner's childhood was difficult to call happy. His father worked as a manufacturer of wigs, and his mother Mary Marshall, when Turner was 10 years old, began to show signs of mental illness. Therefore, Joseph began to live and study in the orphanage Bradford. It was there that he first began to draw and showed considerable ability in this case. One of his watercolors exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts, when the young artist was 14 years old. President of the Academy Joshua Reynolds clung to the soul of William, who was in the position of an orphan with living parents, had long detailed conversations with him, invited him to his mansion, where he could examine the originals of Rubens and Rembrandt. Subsequently, Turner himself called the time spent in conversations with Reynolds, the happiest in his life, perhaps he just badly lacked parental care, and Reynolds just gave it.
The last voyage of the frigate “Daring”
Due to the talent and protectorate of Reynolds, Turner was successful early enough, at the age of 30 he was already able to open his own art gallery. He really wanted all his artworks to be housed in one place so that the viewer could realize the evolution of the artist's work.
Most of all artists Turner respected the Frenchman Claude Lorrain, a master of light artwork, perfectly able to paint the sun, sunset and sunbeams.
Claude Lorrain. Sea harbor at sunset.
When he saw his paintings for the first time, Turner burst into tears of joy and admiration. This is what you should strive for in painting - to thoroughly convey the beauty of natural elements, not to draw lush cherubimchiki, especially since there were their own masters, such as the academician William Bouguereau, to surpass, which is hardly possible in this genre.
His work was revolutionary, but surprisingly much in demand, perhaps because it was understood by his contemporaries. The combination of healthy conservatism and innovative painting techniques appealed to both critics and viewers. The sea in Turner's paintings could be calm or stormy, but inevitably exciting and beautiful.
Ulysses mocking Polyphemus. Homer's "Odyssey"
Many people learned from his paintings, including our famous marine artist Ivan Aivazovsky. Legend has it that Turner once asked to be tied to the mast so that he could remember everything that happened during a storm at sea. He bravely withstood all the blows of the cold sea waves and the gusty wind. In painting, Turner was truly selfless, sparing no effort to capture as accurately and realistically as possible all the majestic power of the raging elements before which he bowed.
Snowstorm. Hannibal's army crossing the Alps
But some art critics, seeing such devotion and love of the elements, often called Turner a madman, suggesting a bad inheritance. This drove the artist mad and so any mention of his mother, who died in a mental hospital, was extremely uncomfortable for the artist.
But Turner loved his father very much and they developed a truly warm relationship. He continued to live with him into adulthood, his father was the first to see his work, sometimes giving practical advice from a simple observer, and Turner, unlike many artists who would not tolerate the slightest interference in their creative process, such as Arkhip Kuindzhi, listened to his father's opinion. His death in 1829 came as a great shock to the artist and influenced his subsequent work.
Rain, Steam and Speed. The Great Western Railway
Turner had the most unassuming appearance of a workman; he himself said that work made him. When he painted, he first filled the entire canvas with paint, wasting no time, waiting for it to dry, moving on to the next, already dried, and beginning to smear the paint on the canvas with his fingers, a brush, painting his favorite elements. There was no form, no completeness, only boundless passion and fury. Everyone who saw him at that moment was frightened - he resembled a madman, fiddling, tearing and rubbing the canvas without any system. But the amazing thing is that gradually, out of the chaos of color, the outlines of the future masterpiece began to emerge. Turner would sometimes make the final corrections in the gallery exhibition - it cost him nothing to spit on the picture and rub the spit with his finger to give it the completeness he wanted.
Fish market
Turner, unlike many artists, for example Mikhail Vrubel, was a very calculating and even greedy person. People say that he would do anything for free, but pay him enough and he would do anything.
Turner's private life was rather peculiar. As a young man he became close friends with the family of the composer John Danby. When Danby died in 1798, Turner began to comfort his wife, Sarah, so assiduously that a close relationship developed between them. She bore Turner two children, but he was not a good father; family and children would have distracted him too much from painting, which was the main thing in his life.
Turner also had a relationship with Sarah's young niece, Hannah Danby - a girl who was a little out of her mind and suffered from a serious skin condition. But she idolised Turner all her life, and perhaps her extreme affection softened the artist's heart.
The final woman in Turner's life was Sophia Booth. He met her when he was renting a room on Magritte Island. Turner died in her house, and before he died he asked her to give him a brush and paints so that he could capture his favorite elements one last time.
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