J. W. M. Turner (1775-1851) British, (3) Framed Etchings. Each depicts a view of a Roman style bridge over water, with a tall city on a hill nearby and various boats and water-faring folk. Each says "Drawn by J. M. W. Turner, R. A." at the bottom left, lists the engraver in the bottom right, and gives the name of the city as the title in cursive bottom middle. All matching frames.
Condition: Some scuffing on frames. Overall very good.
Largest Overall Size: 11 1/4 x 13 1/2 in.
Largest Sight Size: 4 3/4 x 6 1/4 in.
Joseph Mallord William Turner (best known by his signature J. M. W. Turner) was born on April 23rd, 1775 in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, London, to a modest lower-middle-class family. His childhood was difficult, and his mother was sent to a lunatic asylum when he was ten, foreshadowing the mental troubles he himself would one day suffer. A child prodigy, Turner enrolled at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1789 to study under Thomas Malton, a topographical draftsman, and exhibited his first watercolors, oils, drawings, and plaster casts there the following year. During this period he also served as an architectural draftsman and earned a steady income from commissions and sales, gaining much fame for both his youth and the quality of his etchings and engravings. He opened his own gallery in 1804 to show his maritime paintings and became professor of perspective at the Academy in 1807, where he lectured until 1828. He travelled around Europe from 1802 onward, typically returning with voluminous sketchbooks. Intensely private, eccentric, and reclusive, Turner was a controversial figure throughout his career. He did not marry, but fathered two daughters, Evelina (1801-1874) and Georgiana (1811-1843), by the widow Sarah Danby. He became more pessimistic and morose as he got older, especially after the death of his father in 1829, and when his outlook deteriorated his gallery fell into disrepair and neglect as well, and his artistic output increased and intensified. He formed few friendships, but later in life had several intense relationships with fellow artists, growing more and more distraught when they died or could no longer tolerate his moods. He lived in squalor and poor health from 1845 onward, painting mainly shipwrecks, fiery infernos, and other dynamic and violent scenes, and traveling around the world several times before succumbing to cholera at the home of Sophia Caroline Booth, a fervent patron, on December 19th, 1851. Obtaining early financial independence allowed Turner to innovate and explore his craft in numerous forms, demonstrated by his prolific and immense output of nearly 33,000 works, most of them quickly but brilliantly executed drawings on paper. His printmaking was a major part of his output, and the Turner Museum in Sarasota, Florida is devoted exclusively to it. When he died he left a small fortune to support what he called “decayed artists,” as well as a portion to the Royal Academy of Arts, which occasionally awards students the Turner Medal. Over the decades his paintings have wound up in private, public, and corporate collections across the globe, with the majority of them in the Tate Britain.
Some scuffing on frames. Overall very good.
