J.M.W. Turner

Joseph Mallord William Turner was born in 1775 in London. He achieved success and fame early, both as a painter and as the pre-eminent illustrator of his time. Independent-minded to the point of eccentricity, he lived reclusively but travelled widely in France, Italy and Germany until his last years.
Turner died in 1851 and was buried in St Paul’s Cathedral. He left all the paintings and drawings in his studio to the nation, but the stipulations in his will were never fully honoured.
‘He was a genius of the first order – far the greatest painter England ever produced.’ Kenneth Clark