J.M.W. Turner (artifacts 7)

turner portrait of himself

Joseph Mallord William Turner, born on 23 April 1775 in Covent Garden, London, England, death on 19 December 1851 in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, London, England, was an English Romantic landscape painter, watercolourist and printmaker. His father was a maker of wigs. His mother was ill with mental problems, and the young Turner was sent to live with his uncle in Brentford, where he first started to paint.
Turner became a student at the Royal Academy of Art in London when he was 15 years old. He had a watercolour painting in 1790 in the Academy's important art show which he had only been studying for a year. In 1802, at the age of only 28, he was elected a member of the Royal Academy, and later became its Professor of Pespective. In 1802, Turner travelled around Europe, visiting France and Switzerland. He also went to the Louvre in Paris. During his life, he often travelled across Europe, visiting Venice in Italy several times. As his personal style developed, he began to produce romantic paintings that were generalised or exaggerated in form and colour, rather than realistic or detailed. These caused much argument as to their artistic value, but nowadays are his best loved works. On his death, he left 300 oils and 20,000 watercolours to the British nation. Some of his watercolours are the most abstract or generalised of his paintings.He was one of the greatest master of British watercolour landscape, and his ability to depict light and water is often seen as a direct opendoor to impressionistic paintings. Turner's work focuses on the English countryside especially the sussex and the English coast. Turner began to move away from the traditional English landscape with a distinctive style of painting that blurred the margin between the sky and reflection. He is considered to be the greatest painter in British history. In 2005, J.M.W. Turner's "the fighting temeraire" was voteed to be Britain's greatest painting in a bbc poll.

Examples of his paintings:

The Fighting Temeraire tugged to her last berth to be broken up, 1839. Oil on canvas.

Rain, Steam and Speed - The Great Western Railway(1844); the painting depicts an early locomotive of the Great Western Railway crossing the River Thameson Brunel's recently completed Maidenhead Railway Bridge.The painting is also credited for allowing a glimpse of the Romantic strife within Turner and his contemporaries over the issue of the technological advancement during the Industrial Revolution.

The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons, 16th October, 1834. Turner witnessed the fire that burnt down most of the Palace of Westminster on 16 October 1834. He made a watercolour sketch at the time, which he then used as the basis of several larger paintings. 

The Battle of Trafalgar is an oil-on-canvas painting, created by J.M.W. Turner in 1824. It shows the Royal Navy ship HMS Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar. It was controversial at the time, since it was not considered to be historically accurate. Turner chose to combine events from several times during the battle.

Turner's popularity has only increased since hs death in 1851. On July 7th, 2010, Turner's final painting of Rome entitled Modern Rome – Campo Baccino (1839) was bought by the J. Paul. Getty Museum of Los Angeles, California at Sotheby's London for 44.9 million dollars.




Reflection questions:

1) a. What main topic does the artifact relates to? In what way?

ans: It relates to Human expression through the arts (painting). J.M.W. turner is an artist famous for his landscape, and it is a way of expressing himself.

b. Which other main topic does it also relate to?

ans: It also relates to Ingenuity, because Turner did not exactly follow the drawing pattern that was popular during the time, therefore there was some dissension about his artwork at the time he lived.

2) Why did you choose this artifact, and how much time did you spend creating and /or processing it?

ans: I chose this topic about Turner, because I liked his style of painting very much and I wish people could understand him too. It took me around 80 minutes to do this.

3) What insights and understanding have you gained from the creation and/or processing of this artifact?

ans: I understanded how people are willing to pay for a dead man's painting, and I think it is kind of worth the price.

4) Does this artifact reflect your best work and/or ideas? Why, or why not?

ans: I don't think this artifact reflects my best work, but I did put some effort into it; I think it lacks some ingenuity.

5) Rate this artifact on a scale of -5 to 5 (0 is neutral) for the following four criterion.
a. Impact on the quality of your portfolio. 3
b. Impact on your level of enjoyment and happiness. 4
c. Impact on your learning. 3
d. Level of creativity and Originality. 3

ans: 3

6) Any additional comments.

ans: I somehow started to agree with the costs of those paintings.