Childhood where Turner was born, 1850s Turner's father William Turner (1745–1829) moved to London around 1770 from
South Molton, Devon. His father was a barber and wig maker. His mother, Mary Marshall, came from a family of butchers. A younger sister, Mary Ann, was born in September 1778 but died in August 1783. There are reasons to question the accepted location and birth date for Turner: "He sometimes talked of being born in the same year as Napoleon and the Duke of Wellington" This would put Turner's birth date as 1769. His age at death in the General Register Office death index is 81 which may support his being born in 1769. However, in the first codicil to his will dated 20 August 1832, he states that his birthday was 23 April. "As the birth place of Turner has recently appeared to some persons a matter of doubt, I may here observe that he was born at Barnstaple, and neither in Maiden-lane nor at South Molton, if his own words go for anything." Turner's mother showed signs of mental disturbance from 1785 and was admitted to
St Luke's Hospital for Lunatics in Old Street in 1799. She was moved in 1800 to
Bethlem Hospital, a
mental asylum, where she died in 1804. About 1785, Turner was sent to his maternal uncle, Joseph Mallord William Marshall, a butcher in
Brentford, then a small town on the banks of the
River Thames west of London, where Turner attended school. The earliest known artistic exercise by Turner is from this period—a series of simple colourings of engraved plates from Henry Boswell's
Picturesque View of the Antiquities of England and Wales. Around 1786, Turner was sent to
Margate on the north-east
Kent coast. There, he produced a series of drawings of the town and surrounding area that foreshadowed his later work. By this time, Turner's drawings were being exhibited in his father's shop window and sold for a few
shillings. His father boasted to the artist
Thomas Stothard that: "My son, sir, is going to be a painter". In 1789, Turner again stayed with his uncle who had retired to
Sunningwell (then in
Berkshire, now part of
Oxfordshire). A whole
sketchbook of work from this time survives, as well as a
watercolour of
Oxford. The use of pencil sketches on location, as the foundation for later finished paintings, formed the basis of Turner's essential working style for his whole career. By the end of 1789, he had also begun to study under the
topographical draughtsman
Thomas Malton, who specialised in London views. Turner learned from him the basic tricks of the trade, copying and colouring outline prints of British castles and
abbeys. He would later call Malton "My real master". Topography was a thriving industry by which a young artist could pay for his studies.
Career '' (), Aberdeen Archives Gallery and Museums '', 1839 Turner entered the
Royal Academy of Art in 1789, aged 14, and was accepted into the academy a year later by
Sir Joshua Reynolds. He showed an early interest in architecture but was advised by Hardwick to focus on painting. His first watercolour, ''A View of the Archbishop's Palace, Lambeth'', was accepted for the
Royal Academy summer exhibition of 1790 when Turner was 15. As an academy probationer, Turner was taught drawing from plaster casts of antique sculptures. From July 1790 to October 1793, his name appears in the registry of the academy over a hundred times. In June 1792, he was admitted to the
life class to learn to draw the human body from naked models. Turner exhibited watercolours each year at the academy while painting in the winter and travelling in the summer widely throughout Britain, particularly to
Wales, where he produced a wide range of sketches for working up into studies and watercolours. These were particularly focused on architectural work, which used his skills as a draughtsman. In 1793, he showed the oil titled
The Rising Squall, Hot Wells (lost until 2024), which foreshadowed his later climatical effects. The British writer
Peter Cunningham, in his obituary of Turner, wrote that it was: "recognised by the wiser few as a noble attempt at lifting landscape art out of the tame insipidities ... [and] evinced for the first time that mastery of effect for which he is now justly celebrated". '', exhibited in 1796, the first oil painting exhibited by Turner at the Royal Academy In 1796, Turner exhibited
Fishermen at Sea, a nocturnal moonlit scene of
the Needles off the
Isle of Wight, an image of boats in peril. Wilton said that the image was "a summary of all that had been said about the sea by the artists of the 18th century" and shows strong influence by artists such as
Claude Joseph Vernet,
Philip James de Loutherbourg,
Peter Monamy and
Francis Swaine, who was admired for his moonlight
marine paintings. The image was praised by contemporary critics and founded Turner's reputation as both an oil painter and a painter of maritime scenes. , 1840, ''Portrait of J. M. W. Turner, making his sketch for the celebrated picture of 'Mercury & Argus' ''(exhibited in 1836) Turner travelled widely in Europe, starting with France and Switzerland in 1802 and studying in
the Louvre in Paris in the same year. He made many visits to
Venice. Important support for his work came from
Walter Ramsden Fawkes of
Farnley Hall, near
Otley in Yorkshire, who became a close friend of the artist. Turner first visited Otley in 1797, aged 22, when commissioned to paint watercolours of the area. He was so attracted to Otley and the surrounding area that he returned to it throughout his career. The stormy backdrop of
Snow Storm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps is reputed to have been inspired by a storm over
the Chevin in Otley while he was staying at Farnley Hall. Turner was a frequent guest of
George Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont, at
Petworth House in West Sussex, and painted scenes that Egremont funded, taken from the grounds of the house and of the Sussex countryside, including a view of the
Chichester Canal. Petworth House still displays 20 paintings, the largest collection of his work outside the
Tate.
Later life As Turner grew older, he became more eccentric. He had few close friends except for his father, who lived with him for 30 years and worked as his studio assistant. His father's death in 1829 had a profound effect on him, and thereafter, he was subject to bouts of depression. He never married but had a relationship with an older widow, his housekeeper, Sarah Danby. He is believed to have been the father of her two daughters Evelina Dupuis and Georgiana Thompson. Evelina married
Joseph Dupuis on 31 October 1817. It was recorded that her mother, Sarah Danby, was a witness along with Charles Thompson. (1838) Turner formed a relationship with Sophia Caroline Booth after her second husband died, and from 1846 he lived with her as "Mr Booth" or "Admiral Booth" in her house at 6 Davis's Place (now
Cheyne Walk) in
Chelsea, until his death in December 1851. Turner was a habitual user of
snuff; in 1838,
Louis Philippe I,
King of the French, presented a gold
snuff box to him. Of two other snuffboxes, an
agate and silver example bears Turner's name, and another, made of wood, was collected along with his spectacles, magnifying glass and card case by an associate housekeeper. Turner formed a short but intense friendship with the artist
Edward Thomas Daniell. The painter
David Roberts wrote of him that, "He adored Turner, when I and others doubted, and taught me to see & to distinguish his beauties over that of others ... the old man really had a fond & personal regard for this young clergyman, which I doubt he ever evinced for the other". Daniell may have supplied Turner with the spiritual comfort he needed after the deaths of his father and friends, and to "ease the fears of a naturally reflective man approaching old age". After Daniell's death in
Lycia at the age of 38, he told Roberts he would never form such a friendship again. Before leaving for the Middle East, Daniell commissioned Turner’s portrait from
John Linnell. Turner had previously refused to sit for the artist, and it was difficult to get his agreement to be portrayed. Daniell positioned the two men opposite each other at dinner, so that Linnell could observe his subject carefully and portray his likeness from memory.His death certificate shows that he died of natural decay at the age of 81. His place of death was recorded as Davis Place, Cremorne Road which was the residence of Sophia Booth, the woman believed to be his common law wife. He is buried in
St Paul's Cathedral, where he lies near the painter Sir
Joshua Reynolds. though this may be apocryphal. Turner's friend, the architect
Philip Hardwick, the son of his old tutor, was in charge of making the funeral arrangements and wrote to those who knew Turner to tell them at the time of his death that, "I must inform you, we have lost him." Other executors were his cousin and chief mourner at the funeral, Henry Harpur IV (benefactor of
Westminster – now Chelsea & Westminster – Hospital), Revd. Henry Scott Trimmer,
George Jones RA and
Charles Turner ARA. == Art ==