Page:Cyclopedia of Painters and Paintings, 1887, vol 4.djvu/363

 TURNER in New York. Works: Scene on Grand Canal Dordrecht, Nooning (1882) ; Merry Milkmaid, T. B. Clarke, New York ; Gone a-Milking, Harvest Meal, Preparing for Yearly Meeting (1883) ; Woman tending Flowers in a Garden, Sunday Afternoon, Ruth Huckaback, Courtship of Miles Stan- dish (1884) ; Half Hours with the Poets, Emblem of Mortality (1885) ; Bridal Pro- cession, Queen of the Montauks (1886). TURNER, JOSEPH MALLORD WILL- IAM, born in London, April 23, 1775, died there, Dec. 19, 1851. Son of a hairdresser, in whose rooms his draw- ings were first exhib- ited ; entered schools of Royal Academy in 1789, studied perspec- tive under Thomas Malton, and architect- ure drawing with Hardwick ; also worked with Girtin and others, in house of Dr. Monro, the art pat- ron, for whom he made drawings. He fre- quently made excursions into the country, sketching views and making studies of riv- er scenery, many in water-colours, but some in pencil. In 1799, when he became an A.RA.,he had exhibited works from twenty- six different counties in England and Wales. He became an R.A. in 1802, and about the same time visited Scotland, France, and Switzerland. Some of his best pictures in oil were exhibited after his return. In 1807 he became professor of perspective in the Roy- al Academy, and began his Liber Studiorum, a book of sketches in monochrome, in imi- tation of the Liber Veritatis of Claude, in emulation of whose style he painted about this time. Turner visited Italy three times in 1819, in 1829, and in 1840. After a life of almost unrivalled success, in which he won all the honours his art could give, and accumulated a large fortune, he died un- married, leaving his pictures to the nation and his funded property to found an institu- tion for decayed artists. Thus the National Gallery came into possession of more than a hundred of his finished pictures, two of which, Sun rising in a Mist, and Dido building Carthage, were bequeathed on condition that they be hung between two Claudes. Previous to 1802 Turner was most remarkable in water-colour painting, the development of which is largely due to him. Between that time and his second visit to Italy he was distinguished for masterly execution and brilliant colouring. Most of his finest works belong to this period. During the last twenty years of his life he sacrificed form to colour ; light, with its prismatic variations, seeming to have engrossed all his attention. "He went," says Ruskin, " to the cataract for its iris, to the conflagration for its flames, asked of the sea its intensest azure, of the sky its clear- est gold." Turner exhibited 257 paintings and drawings at the Royal Academy, besides which he left many sketches, etchings, and book illustrations. His "Southern Coast Scenery," " England and Wales," " Rivers of France," and " Rogers's Italy," are mon- uments of his genius and taste. Works : Moonlight (1797), Buttermere Lake (1798), Morning on Conistou Fells (1798), 2Enea,s with the Sibyl (1800), Mountain Scene (1800), View in Wales (1800), Fishing Boats in a Breeze (1801), portrait of himself (1802), Clapham Common (1802), Tenth Plague of Egypt (1802), Jason in search of Golden Fleece (1802), Calais Pier (1803), Holy Family (1803), Destruction of Sodom (1805), Shipwreck (1805), Goddess of Dis- cord (1806), Blacksmith's Shop (1807), Sun rising in Mist (1807), Death of Nelson (1808), Spithead (1809), Garreteer's Peti- tion (1809), London from Greenwich (1809), Harvest Dinner (1809), Bligh Sand (1809), St. Mawes (1809), Ruin (1809), Abingdou (1810), Windsor (1810), Apollo killing Py- thon (1811), Hannibal crossing the Alps (1812), Cottage destroyed by Avalanche (1812), Frosty Morning (1813), Deluge (1813), Dido and .Eneas (1814), Apuleia in 307