Joseph Mallord William irr (1775-1S5I) urr was shrt, stocky m with thr striking features, who, without

t advantage of education r birth, m through genius,

detenation,

and boundless

.;;ifi.

greatest tist England had r known.

was r in London on ugust z,

til, tie son of rr. The family lived in Maiden Lane, Covent
"gi;,
naval power and mrht, mri, glimpses of

Carden, shi" quu.ter fr hirdrssrs and wigmakers. The futur painter must h spent much among of his time the warehouses

and docks of the busiest hrur of his tim. Sights

the ships ttraijbminated the seas of the earth, made an indelible impression on urr's

-ind, ut is

rlist pict,*, rrua nothing to do with the sea. It was said that Dr's talent rrsi became evident in his boyhood when he began drawing cocks and hens with pib.. "ur as he rvalked to his school. The

earliestdrawing rsd, hw i.

"." "r
engraving of fd. done when he was twelve. At furt his work d rd sutncient volume for the r to hang up his son's drawings in his shop fr sate-_

- *-' evenings spent several years later with Dr. Thomas r, well-known

We know little about Drr's education as an artist. At the age of furt, he stud- ied with hrs Malton,

an able thr. hr were also collector.

Frm 1789-1793 Drr had attended the Royal m School, whr he drr the antique and also !Q. Br-rt copying the works of otbeis and sketching frm nature wr the main methods by which Turrler

ffii- een, his waYfaring began, his constant srh for-picturesque subjects fr his water_ lurs and drawings. trld widely in gi und ii.., skthig -ountuini.
taught himself. when

t.

1,yu,

ruins, famous buildings, etc., type of work imsl ur. Throughout his life topographical painting was to provide mjr Source of im. In 1790 he had wateI- colour exhibited at the Academy and was
praised the "rr.
-

The water-colourS sent in \79l to the ul exhibition at Royal Academy, sho. that he had attained absolute mastery of light und ,uJ., irr."ti", of architec- tural detail. In the same exhibition he swdis first

His *r, ."n]ii.Jb trr. Koyur J. wr admired, and hervas beginn_ing to generally known , i. *ost promising of the ugr artists. I 1799 he was elected AsJociate tt . Koyur m.

"li-"i"i <Fisherman t

Seao. umr's artistic rr. was fiourishing.

_u _rThre spark of genius, hwv still lay drmt. It btazed up rv.rr, in spring of 1799. saw two paintings claude Lrri. These had j; boueht the influential collector William Beckford arr{ wr on display in hb hbuse. lrrl"t r he painted first historical picture <The Fifth Piague ofBgypb, aiO0,'lis

Museum of ), Historical painting was then rgdds r hilbst ru""^uil trr. critics approved the
altered direction of Tlrrneri work.

Beckfoil bought , iirlr

150 guineas.

[n the three rs between 1799 d,1802 um'r

;;;;;;ud to change. But as his ger.ius began to

shine, thr rd critics *lro

beean;;;;;il. One of them Wrote: <[rr strives fr singrrlarity andlhe

sublime but tras ii, to rfrm what he undertakes...r> In 1802, aS Soon as the of Amiens was signed, temporarily ending the w between England and Fr, umr departed for t rrtrrt, principally to Stud} poussin and the old Masters in the Louvie. Fr time he immured himself in his studio, partly to continue his interrupted wrk d partly to assimilate

what he had lrd abroad. B"t

r,,e

ui.b began to show that interest in the aflairs of the Royal Academy

which was to rmi withim ttrroughbut his life.