Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851)
Joseph Mallord William Turner is one of the greatest English ro mantic painters and the most original of English landscape artists. Turner was born in London in 1775. His first drawings are dated 1787, when he was only twelve. His childish sketchbooks are still preserved in the British Museum. He received almost no general educal on but at 14 he became a student at the Royal Academy of Arts and three years later was making drawings for magazines. In 1791 he exhibited two watercolors at the Royal Academy for the first time. He became famous for visionary interpretations ofandscape, making experiments with light and colour.
In 1802 he went to the Continent, where he painted his famous Calais Pier (now exhibited in the National Gallery, London). Later he often travelled in England or abroad, using every opportunity to make sketches for his studio paintings in oil and watercolour. His works were exhibited regularly, and in 1807 he became professor of the Academy. Turner showed a remarkable ability to choose the best from the tradi tion of landscape painting. Among his paintings are Dido Building Carthage (The National Gallery, London) and Crossing the Brook (The Tate Gallery, London).
Despite his early and continued success Turner lived a very quiet life. As his fame grew, he bought a large gallery in London for exhibi tion of his work, but continued to live very modestly with his old father. His painting became increasingly abstract, as he wanted to portray light, space, and the elemental forces of nature. He showed atmospheric ef fects with bright colours, for example, in The Grand Canal (The Metro politan Museum, New York) and Approach to Venice (The National Gallery, Washington, DC). In his will he left more than 19,000 water
colours, drawings, and oils to the nation. Most of these works are in the National Gallery and the Tate Gallery, London. In watercolour he is unsurpassed.
7. Say to which facts the following figures refer in the text:
1775;
1787; 14;
1791;
1802;
1807;
19,000;
1851
1775 - Это год рождения Джозефа Маллорда Уильяма Тернера.
1787 - В 1787 году, когда ему было всего 12 лет, Уильям Тернер создал свои первые рисунки, которые до сих пор хранятся в Британском музее.
14 - В 14 лет Уильям Тернер стал студентом Королевской академии искусств.
1791 - В 1791 году Уильям Тернер впервые выставил два акварельных рисунка в Королевской академии искусств.
1802 - В 1802 году Уильям Тернер отправился в континентальную Европу, где он создал свою знаменитую картину "Calais Pier", которая сейчас экспонируется в Национальной галерее Лондона.
1807 - В 1807 году Уильям Тернер стал профессором Королевской академии искусств.
19,000 - В своем завещании Уильям Тернер оставил наследию нации более 19 000 акварельных рисунков, набросков и масляных картин.
1851 - В 1851 году Уильям Тернер скончался.