Joseph Mallord William Turner
A New Biographical Sketch
Turner graced our planet for 76 years,
from 1775 to 1851, an unusually long life-span in his age. He was born on April 23, a
birthday he shared with Shakespeare and Englands patron saint George.
In the times following his promotion to heaven, innumerable biographies/reminiscences
appeared - in many of them it is hard but rewarding to find gems amid the mass of well
meaning nonsense, operatic effervescence, even tabloid-style gossip and outright rubbish.
Generations of 20th century writers made reputations and a good living by attempting to
clear out the undergrowth of misinformation spawned in the bad old days. In
truth, Turner left a magnificent biography - his artistic legacy - over 20,000 drawings,
sketches and on-the-run notations, upwards of 600 oils, along with some 800
multiple-originals on paper - his graphic output.
By and by, a growing number of serious scholars begun to shed much needed light on his
heritage. Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll gifted us with an encyclopedic catalogue of his
paintings in 1977 and 1984. Andrew Wilton produced a catalogue of his water-colors, many
of them designs for his original prints and other works associated with his master-print
production, in 1979. Additional sterling work by Eric Shanes, an artist and currently
chairman of the Turner Society and by curators at the Tate Gallery, London - home of a
treasury of more than 20,000 Turners - has expanded Turners biography.
The only major portion of Turners
biography where confusion still reigns supreme, relates to his graphic output.
To add insult to the injury of its virtual neglect, some authorities have
developed the practice of
crediting their authorship to his assistants. The Turner Museum hopes to
establish clarity and appreciation in this field - please browse through our catalogue
platform , particularly sections entitled : The Original Prints of J.M.W.Turner - a
New Chronological Catalogue and An Art-Lovers Guide to Collecting Turner
Prints.
Turner was a multiple-genius - he was not only one of the all-time greats in art - but
also a business genius, a self-made millionaire. His career was meteoric - exhibited at
Londons Royal Academy at 15, became an associate member at 24 and in 1802, at 27,
full member when membership was strictly limited to 40 including sculptors and architects.
His career was filled as he put it with damned hard work coupled with a
persistent striving for perfection. Among friends - delight of the party. Turner also
delighted to cross swords with the middlemen who brought his works to the public - a trait
shared by Picasso a few generations later.
Turners biography continues in the works of his admirers. One of the early ones was
Thomas Moran (1839-1928) whose heroic contribution to the establishment of millions upon
millions of acres of public land in America can not be overestimated. Perhaps his greatest
admirers were the Impressionists, hands down the most popular artists in the past century.
No greater homage was ever given to any artist at any time and space than the letter
penned in 1877 by Boudin, Cassat, Degas, Monet, Morisot, Pissaro, Renoir and
Sisley:
A group of French painters, united by the same aesthetic tendencies, struggling for ten
years against convention and routine to bring back art to the scrupulously exact
observation of nature, applying themselves with passion to the rendering of reality of
form in movement as well as the fugitive phenomena of light, cannot forget that they have
been proceeded in this path by "great master of the English school, the illustrious
Turner.
Such diverse artists like Miro (1893-1983), Henry Moore (1896-1986) and Dali (1904-1989)
claimed Turner was their favorite artist - in conversations with the founder of this
museum. Others include Rothko (1903-1970), pillar of New Yorks abstract
expressionists. And then there are the millions of art lovers who flock to the Clore
Gallery (in the Tate) - reputedly Londons biggest tourist attraction - who fall in
love with Turner after being exposed to a feast of Turners, year after year.
At The Turner the exploration of
celestial harmonies between geniuses in all fields is an ongoing process - Turners
biography is still being written as we expand our pioneering studies to explore divine
relationships between Turner, Beethoven, Blake, Morse, Mozart, Hokusai, Washington and
others in addition to the ones named above. |