Few British artists have ever achieved such a wide range of style in oil
painting, watercolour, drawing and engraving as J. M. W. Turner. He had
a precocious gift that was developed over a lifetime of experiment and
innovation. This classic book in the World of Art series traces the
artist s career from youthful pictureseque views and watercolours of
Gothic ruins to the romantic landscape and historical compositions of
his maturity, and the astonishing art of his later years. In these late
paintings Turner s tragic sense of life is stated most profoundly and
the work was unintelligible to his contemporaries but his reputation as
the greatest British painter now rests on our understanding of these as
pioneering explorations of abstraction, prefiguring the art of the 20th
century. Graham Reynolds weaves together the artist s biography with
sensitive criticism of his work, through all phases of his career, in
this classic work first published in 1969 that has long served as an
outstanding introduction to Turner s life and art. It has now been
revised and updated by the curator of the Turner Bequest at Tate, David
Blayney Brown, to reflect recent discoveries and interpretations, and
the illustrations are in full colour for the first time. It will serve
as the best available study of this perennially popular artist for a new
generation of readers.
Table of Contents
1. Life s Morning Landscape 2. The Academician 3. A Wonderful Range of Mind 4. Italy: That Veil of Matchless Colour 5. The Tragic Vision