\paperw4995 \margr0\margl0 \plain \fs20 \f1 \ATXsh255 English painter.\par
Considered one of the most significant exponents of Romantic painting, Joseph Mallord William Turner d
isplayed a precocious talent and was admitted to the Royal Academy in 1789. His dazzling career owed much to the academic institution, where his work, unlike that of John Constable, received numerous prizes and awards. Initially devoting himself to engra
ving and watercolor, he turned to oils in 1796. During the early part of his career he followed the topographical tradition, reproducing the places he visited on his wanderings through the English countryside. It was this passion for travel that remained
with him throughout his life and led to his predilection for the landscape and to the large number of sketches and watercolors he painted from nature, used to produce engravings or oil paintings. A cultured and curious artist, Turner deeply admired the
classical painting of Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain, but studied with equal interest RembrandtÆs research into light and GoetheÆs \i Theory of Colors\i0 , which constituted an important presupposition for his own investigation of light. Other eviden
ce for TurnerÆs links with the philosophical and figurative culture of the eighteenth century comes from his interest in the poetics of the picturesque and the work of Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough, and other British painters of their generation.
A decisive influence on his research came from his study of the watercolors of the landscape painter J.R. Cozens, from whom Turner learned to go beyond the accurate reproduction of nature to produce a freer and more lyrical vision of the landscape. His f
ondness for the representation of natural cataclysms, evident in his early work, reflects the painterÆs adherence to the poetics of the sublime (\i The Shipwreck\i0 , London, Tate Gallery; \i The Saint Gothard Pass\i0 , 1803, London, British Museum) as t
heorized by the philosopher Immanuel Kant in his \i Critique of Judgment\i0 of 1790.\par
Over the following years, while not forgetting the lesson of the old masters, Turner gradually developed a style of his own, concentrating on the representation of
the effects of weather and light. Even in his historical and mythological paintings, his interest centers on the landscape, on the rendering of atmosphere, and, frequently, the more dramatic and ôsublimeö aspects of nature (\i Snowstorm: Hannibal and hi
s Army Crossing the Alps\i0 , 1812, London, Tate Gallery). His first visit to Italy in 1819, when he went to Venice, Rome, and Naples, revealed to him the intense luminosity of the Italian atmosphere, exercising a decisive influence on the evolution of h
is style. Over the next few years he visited Scotland, France, and Switzerland. During his stays in Italy, he returned to Venice, immortalizing the city in magnificent views (\i Venice from the Giudecca Canal\i0 , 1840, London, British Museum; \i San Ben
edetto: View toward Fusina\i0 , 1843, London, Tate Gallery). In this period his investigation of light and color became increasingly central: the space of the composition was freed from any traditional perspective structure and forms lost their substance
and outlines, while light and pure colors became the true protagonists of the picture. Out of this came masterpieces like the \i Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons\i0 (1835, Cleveland, Museum of Art), \i Interior at Petworth\i0 , \i circa\i0 1
827, London, Tate Gallery), and \i Snowstorm\i0 (1842, London, National Gallery). Perhaps the work that best suggests the artistÆs achievement of an intensely modern vision is \i Rain, Steam, and Speed\i0 (1844, London, National Gallery), the first imp
ortant pictorial representation of a train. The almost abstract results produced by Turner in the works of his maturity caused perplexity among the public and the critics of the specialist press. Almost the only encouragement came from the young poet Joh
n Ruskin, whose \i Modern Painters\i0 (1834-60) offers an acute analysis of TurnerÆs work. The lack of realism and the ôlyricalö component of his painting would be criticized by the Impressionists, who preferred the objectivity of ConstableÆs vision.
