The Bottom Line
If doing illustrations for travel guides was good enough for Turner, why should you be snobbish about doing "illustrations" or "graphic design"? Similarly, paint for a market but also for yourself too. Set goals and pursue them, whether it's sales or fame (or both).
Pros
- Very readable biography of the famous British painter, doesn't get bogged down in detail.
- Detailed descriptions of paintings make it feel almost as if you're looking at them.
- Provides historical and cultural context for Turner's life and art, as well as his motivations.
- Reveals how hard Turner worked at his art, sales, and legacy.
Cons
- Only a small number of color reproductions of paintings.
Description
- Paperback book. First published 1997. USA and UK editions have different covers.
- Three photo inserts, one in color and two in black-and-white.
- Author James Hamilton is an art writer and gallery curator. His writing style is accessible and informative.
- Show Turner's family tree down to his grandchildren. (He had two children by one of the women he lived with.)
- Maps showing London locations, his travels around the UK and Europe.
Guide Review - Turner : A Life by James Hamilton
If you've been to the Tate Britain gallery in London, you'll know that JMW Turner has a whole wing to himself. This biography tells the remarkable story of how Turner, whose father was a barber (in an era where social status mattered greatly) became an associate at the Royal Academy of art at the age of only 24 and eventually one of the most celebrated (and hated in some quarters) painters Britain has ever produced. It also shows how determinedly Turner worked at ensuring his success.
At a time when the Royal Academy's annual show was an unmissable event on the yearly art calendar and one of the few places to display paintings, Turner boldly opened his own art gallery. He also diversified, creating prints of his works (some schemes being more successful than others), taking commissions to illustrated travel guides, and doing watercolors to be turned into engravings.
Turner was an enthusiastic traveler, venturing into France and Italy (when wars on the continent didn't prevent it) and traversing England and Scotland. He always had a sketchbook to hand, making cryptic sketches and notes about what he'd seen and experienced, to be used in paintings somewhere down the line.
He varied his subjects, from grand historical themes to small, local scenes. He could emulate the styles of esteemed artists (when he chose to) and developed a very distinctive, expressive and loose style of his own, which now seems to foretell what the Impressionists did.
Turner's is a life story that's as full and intriguing as his paintings. Hamilton's telling of it is compelling reading and doesn't get bogged down by art jargon or detail (although he could perhaps have quoted less of Turner's dubious poetry, even if it did accompany some of his paintings).
