Joseph Mallord William Turner, known in his time as William Turner, was an English Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolourist. He is known for his expressive colouring, imaginative landscapes and turbulent, often violent marine paintings. He left behind more than 550 oil paintings, 2,000 watercolours, and 30,000 works on paper. He was championed by the leading English art critic John Ruskin from 1840, and is today regarded as having elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivalling history painting.
The Battle of Trafalgar, 21 October 1805 is a painting of 1822 by the British artist J. M. W. Turner. It was commissioned by King George IV as a part of a series of works to decorate three state reception rooms in St James's Palace and link the Hanoverian dynasty with military success. This work was Turner's only royal commission, and was to stand as the pendant piece to Philippe-Jacques de Loutherbourg's Lord Howe's action, or the Glorious First of June. This massive history painting measures 2,615 millimetres x 3,685 millimetres and is his largest work. It was given to Greenwich Hospital shortly after its original installation. The painting now hangs in the National Maritime Museum, also in Greenwich, London.
Events in the year 1823 in art.
Charles Turner was an English mezzotint engraver and draughtsman who specialized in portraiture. He collaborated with J. M. W. Turner on the early plates of the same's Liber Studiorum.
The Cumaean Sibyl was the priestess presiding over the Apollonian oracle at Cumae, a Greek colony near Naples, Italy. The word sibyl comes from the ancient Greek word sibylla, meaning prophetess. There were many sibyls throughout the ancient world. Because of the importance of the Cumaean Sibyl in the legends of early Rome as codified in Virgil's Aeneid VI, and because of her proximity to Rome, the Cumaean Sibyl became the most famous among the Romans. The Erythraean Sibyl from modern-day Turkey was famed among Greeks, as was the oldest Hellenic oracle, the Sibyl of Dodona, dating to the second millennium BC according to Herodotus, favored in the east.
The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons, 16th October, 1834 is the title of two oil on canvas paintings by J. M. W. Turner, depicting different views of the fire that broke out at the Houses of Parliament on the evening of 16 October 1834. They are now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Cleveland Museum of Art.
Sunrise with Sea Monsters is an unfinished oil painting by English artist J. M. W. Turner.
The Fifth Plague of Egypt is an 1800 oil painting by Romantic English artist Joseph Mallord William Turner currently in the permanent collection at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Despite its title, it depicts Moses cursing the Egyptians with a plague of hail and fire, known as the seventh plague. It is one of the first works in which Turner uses an extreme representation of landscape and nature to explore the sublime.
Ulysses Deriding Polyphemus is an 1829 oil painting by Joseph Mallord William Turner. It depicts a scene from Homer's Odyssey, showing Odysseus (Ulysses) standing on his ship deriding Polyphemus, one of the cyclopes he encounters and has recently blinded, who is disguised behind one of the mountains on the left side. Additional details include the Trojan Horse, a scene from Virgil's Aeneid, on one of the flags and the horses of Apollo rising above the horizon. This painting is thought to be quickly done as a replacement for previous paintings submitted to the Academy that had been delayed. The painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1829 and acquired by the National Gallery in 1856.
Snow Storm, or Snow Storm: Steam-Boat off a Harbour's Mouth, is a painting by English artist Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) from 1842.
Martin Richard Fletcher Butlin, CBE, FBA is a British art historian. His main field of study is British art history and his published works reflect, in particular, a study of art of the 18th and 19th centuries. He is an authority on J.M.W. Turner (1775–1851) and William Blake (1757–1827).
In 1842, British artist J. M. W. Turner painted three watercolours of the Rigi, a mountain in the Alps in Central Switzerland, which he had visited the previous summer. Widely regarded as some of his finest works, the watercolours capture the transitory effects of light and atmospheric conditions at the Rigi. According to John Ruskin, "Turner had never made any drawings [watercolours] like these before, and never made any like them again ... He is not showing his hand in these, but his heart."
Fishermen at Sea, sometimes known as the Cholmeley Sea Piece, is an early oil painting by English artist J. M. W. Turner. It was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1796 and has been owned by the Tate Gallery since 1972. It was the first oil painting by Turner to be exhibited at the Royal Academy. It was praised by contemporary critics and burnished Turner's reputation, both as an oil painter and as a painter of maritime scenes.
Alexander Joseph Finberg was an art historian focused on the History of British Art who was a founder of the Walpole Society and an expert on J. M. W. Turner.
The Golden Bough is a painting from 1834 by the English painter J. M. W. Turner. It depicts the episode of the golden bough from the Aeneid by Virgil. It is in the collection of the Tate galleries.
Peace – Burial at Sea is an oil painting on canvas by the English Romantic artist J. M. W. Turner (1775–1851), first exhibited in 1842. The painting serves as a memorial tribute to Turner's contemporary, the Scottish painter Sir David Wilkie (1785–1841), depicting Wilkie's burial at sea. It was intended as a companion piece to War. The Exile and the Rock Limpet which alludes to the sordid demise of the former Emperor of France Napoleon Bonaparte. The two works are characterized by their sharply contrasting colours and tones: War utilizes a strident yellow and red while Peace is painted a cool blend of white, blue and black.
The Funeral of Sir Thomas Lawrence is an 1830 watercolour painting by the British artist J. M. W. Turner. It depicts the funeral at St. Paul's Cathedral in London of Sir Thomas Lawrence, the President of the Royal Academy and a friend and colleague of Turner. Lawrence died unexpectedly in January, and the painting captures the snow-covered landscape of his burial ceremony. Turner served as one of the pallbearers and sketched the scene from memory. It was exhibited at the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition. It was later part of the 1856 Turner Bequest and is now in the collection of the Tate Britain.
The Decline of the Carthaginian Empire is an 1817 history painting by the British artist William Turner. It shows the Sun setting on the city of Carthage, capital of Ancient Carthage. Carthage had been the major rival of the Roman Empire until its defeat in the Punic Wars. Turner intended to draw comparisons with Britain's recent defeat of its own major rival the French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. Stylistically it is inspired by the work of the seventeenth century artist Claude Lorrain.
Venice, the Bridge of Sighs is an 1840 cityscape painting by the English artist J.M.W. Turner. It depicts a view of Venice, then part of the Austrian Empire, looking towards the famous Bridge of Sighs. The Doge's Palace and the City Prison are either side of the bridge.
Forum Romanum is an 1826 cityscape painting by the British artist J.M.W. Turner depicting the Roman Forum in the Italian capital of Rome. Painted during the Regency era it features surviving buildings from Ancient Rome seen in the afternoon light. It looks towards the Capitoline Hill with the Arch of Titus on the left and the Basilica of Constantine on the right.
