Joseph Mallord William Turner
English Romantic Painter, 1775-1851
Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 1775 ?C 19 December 1851) was an English Romantic landscape painter, watercolourist and printmaker, whose style is said to have laid the foundation for Impressionism. Although Turner was considered a controversial figure in his day, he is now regarded as the artist who elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivalling history painting.
Turner's talent was recognised early in his life. Financial independence allowed Turner to innovate freely; his mature work is characterised by a chromatic palette and broadly applied atmospheric washes of paint. According to David Piper's The Illustrated History of Art, his later pictures were called "fantastic puzzles." However, Turner was still recognised as an artistic genius: the influential English art critic John Ruskin described Turner as the artist who could most "stirringly and truthfully measure the moods of Nature." (Piper 321)
Suitable vehicles for Turner's imagination were to be found in the subjects of shipwrecks, fires (such as the burning of Parliament in 1834, an event which Turner rushed to witness first-hand, and which he transcribed in a series of watercolour sketches), natural catastrophes, and natural phenomena such as sunlight, storm, rain, and fog. He was fascinated by the violent power of the sea, as seen in Dawn after the Wreck (1840) and The Slave Ship (1840).
Turner placed human beings in many of his paintings to indicate his affection for humanity on the one hand (note the frequent scenes of people drinking and merry-making or working in the foreground), but its vulnerability and vulgarity amid the 'sublime' nature of the world on the other hand. 'Sublime' here means awe-inspiring, savage grandeur, a natural world unmastered by man, evidence of the power of God - a theme that artists and poets were exploring in this period. The significance of light was to Turner the emanation of God's spirit and this was why he refined the subject matter of his later paintings by leaving out solid objects and detail, concentrating on the play of light on water, the radiance of skies and fires. Although these late paintings appear to be 'impressionistic' and therefore a forerunner of the French school, Turner was striving for expression of spirituality in the world, rather than responding primarily to optical phenomena.
Rain, Steam and Speed - The Great Western Railway painted (1844).His early works, such as Tintern Abbey (1795), stayed true to the traditions of English landscape. However, in Hannibal Crossing the Alps (1812), an emphasis on the destructive power of nature had already come into play. His distinctive style of painting, in which he used watercolour technique with oil paints, created lightness, fluency, and ephemeral atmospheric effects. (Piper 321)
One popular story about Turner, though it likely has little basis in reality, states that he even had himself "tied to the mast of a ship in order to experience the drama" of the elements during a storm at sea.
In his later years he used oils ever more transparently, and turned to an evocation of almost pure light by use of shimmering colour. A prime example of his mature style can be seen in Rain, Steam and Speed - The Great Western Railway, where the objects are barely recognizable. The intensity of hue and interest in evanescent light not only placed Turner's work in the vanguard of English painting, but later exerted an influence upon art in France, as well; the Impressionists, particularly Claude Monet, carefully studied his techniques. Related Paintings of Joseph Mallord William Turner :. | Castle von Kilgarran am Twyvey | Nuber two | Sunset | Level | Spread | Related Artists: CORNELIS VAN HAARLEMDutch painter (b. 1562, Haarlem, d. 1638,
Dutch painter and draughtsman, was one of the leading Northern Mannerist artists in The Netherlands, and an important forerunner of Frans Hals as a portraitist. Cornelis Corneliszoon was a member of the Mannerist school of Haarlem, which was highly influenced by the work of Bartholomeus Spranger, whose drawings were brought to Haarlem by Carel van Mander in 1585, and had a strong immediate effect.[1] He painted mainly portraits as well as mythological and Biblical subjects. Initially Corneliszoon painted large-size, highly stylized works with Italianate nudes in twisted poses with a grotesque, unnatural anatomy. Later, his style changed to one based on the Netherlandish realist tradition. When his parents fled Haarlem in 1572, as the Spanish army laid siege to the city during the Eighty Years' War, Corneliszoon remained behind and was raised by the painter Pieter Pietersz., his first teacher. Later, Corneliszoon studied in Rouen, France and Antwerp, Belgium. Corneliszoon in 1583 received his first official commission from the city of Haarlem, a militia company portrait, the Banquet of the Haarlem Civic Guard. He later became city painter of Haarlem and received numerous official commissions. As a portrait painter, both of groups and individuals, he was an important influence on Frans Hals. Together with Carel van Mander, Hendrick Goltzius and other artists, Corneliszoon formed the Haarlem Academy or "Haarlem Mannerists". Probably this was a very informal grouping, perhaps meeting to draw nude models, and certainly to exchange artistic views.[2] Corneliszoon also played a role in reorganizing the Haarlem artists' and artisans' Guild of St. Luke, eliminating its medieval organization and raising the status of the artists. Corneliszoon married Maritgen Arentsdr Deyman, the daughter of a mayor of Haarlem, sometime before 1603. Abraham WuchtersAbraham Wuchters (1608 - 23 May 1682) was a Dutch-Danish painter and engraver. He was born in Antwerp but had most of his career in Denmark where he, along with Karel van Mander III, was the preferred painter of the Danish King, nobility and Bourgeoisie during his day, together they represent the main influence from the Dutch Golden Age on Danish Baroque art.
Wuchters was born in Antwerp in 1608. He arrived in Denmark in 1638 and was, the following year, employed as sketching master at Sorø Academy. Around the same time, he was summoned to Copenhagen where he painted several portraits of King Christian IV. In 1645 he returned to Copenhagen Castle to portray the King's children, including lrik Christian Gyldenløve (c. 1645, Danish National Gallery) and Duke Frederik (III) (c. 1645, Amalienborg Palace).
In two periods, between 1658 and 1662, he worked at the Royal Swedish Court in Stockholm where he portrayed Queen Consort Christina (1660, Uppsala University and 1661, Stockholm Castle), Charles X Gustav and Hedvig Eleonora.
Back in Denmark, Wuchters was engaged by Frederick III, who had instituted Denmark as an absolute monarchy in 1660, with responsibility for the maintenance of his paintings.
n 1671 the new king, Christian V, appointed him as official Painter to the Danish Coirt and in 1873 he was also made official Engraver to the Danish Court. It was, therefore, he alone who decided how the face of the absolutist King was to be represented. Lodovico MazzolinoItalian High Renaissance Painter, 1480-1528
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