The Reflexive Art

Family Life And Affairs

Turner's personal life was highly private, and as he grew older, he became more eccentric.

He had few close friends, but he was devoted to his father, who lived with him for 30 years and assisted him in the studio, as a cook, and as a gardener. In 1804, his mother died, most likely in a Bethlem insane asylum. Turner struggled with depression following his father's death in 1829. Although he was never married, he fathered two daughters, Eveline and Georgianna, with an older widow, Sarah Danby. "Woman is doubtful love," Turner wrote in one of his sketchbooks, and there is some evidence that the true mother of his daughters was Sarah Danby's niece, who worked as his housekeeper for a time. Later, posing as 'Mr. Booth' in Sophia Caroline Booth's Chelsea home, he had an affair with her.

Turner later travelled to Italy, Switzerland, Germany, France, Denmark, and Czechoslovakia.

He sketched continuously throughout his travels, and approximately 19,000 sketches from these journeys were included in his bequest. His paintings evolved into more fluid, atmospheric, and sparsely detailed works. Turner's paintings reflected his reaction to the changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution. Turner's innovative style in these later paintings drew public criticism, but in Modern Painters, John Ruskin, an English art critic and longtime supporter of Turner's work, defended him (1843-60). Turner's final Royal Academy exhibition took place in 1850. Turner died in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, on December 19, 1851, and is buried in St. Paul's Cathedral.

Mature Improvement Of Early Art

In his early paintings, Turner attempted to master other styles, such as Willem van der Velde's and Claude Lorrain's realistic, orderly pictorial techniques.

However, by 1805, his oil sketches and paintings such as The Shipwreck demonstrated his distinct approach to landscapes and seascapes. By his late thirties, his work possessed an atmospheric and luminescent quality. In works such as Snowstorm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps (1812), he began to focus his efforts on portraying nature's might and man's insignificance in the face of it while also creating a historical rendering.

Turner was also a poet, particularly adored Walter Scott, Lord Byron, Thomas Moore, and John Milton, and he wrote his own, including an unfinished and unpublished work titled Fallacies of Hope in 1812. Turner later exhibited excerpts from his poetry at the Royal Academy.

The Travelling Renewal

Turner travelled abroad once more following the Napoleonic Wars' conclusion in 1815.

In 1819, he travelled to Italy for the first time, visiting Rome, Naples, Florence, and Venice. During this time, he created approximately 1,500 drawings, from which he developed several paintings.

These works, such as The Grand Canal, Venice (1835), demonstrate a shift in his approach to colour, with numerous transparent layers, warm and cool colours to create form, and a more vibrant range in general.