J. M. W. Turner (1775–1851)
Born 1775 CE, died 1851 CE.
Joseph Mallord William Turner (London, 23 April 1775 – London, 19 December 1851), known in his time as William Turner, was an English Romantic and regarded as one of the greatest and most influential British painters. He elevated the status of landscape painting and is considered a precursor of Impressionism. Turner started his career as a watercolourist, achieved fame and financial success as an oil painter and was also an expert printmaker. His later paintings challenged classicisist artistic conventions and were rejected by critics but are considered today his most important works. Their expressionistic renditions of light and atmosphere inspired the early impressionists Monet and Pissarro when they saw them in London in 1870, 20 years after Turner's death. A child prodigy, Turner was accepted as a student at the Royal Academy of Arts when he was only 14 years old and had a rapid ascent to recognition, fame and financial success. He exhibited his first work in the Academy's Annual Exhibition at 15 and when he was 18 he received a prize recognizing him as a master watercolourist.
Text from the Wikipedia article J._M._W._Turner, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.