Turner

THE DEFINITIVE BIOGRAPHY OF J.M.W. TURNER, REISSUED TO MARK THE 250TH ANNIVERSARY OF HIS BIRTH

A pleasure to read
A.S. BYATT

With splendid clarity and shrewd humour, James Hamilton evokes the visceral world of a great artist and a fascinating character
MIKE LEIGH, Academy Award-winning director of Mr. Turner

J.M.W. Turner became an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1799, aged just twenty-four. As influential collectors competed to buy his paintings, he travelled widely - in an era defined by industrial change and social turbulence, he observed both landscape and people, gathering material for a series of works that would come to express the collective identity of Britain.

Blending vibrant biography and art history, James Hamilton paints a remarkable portrait of an eccentric and enigmatic figure. He examines the fascinating conflicts of Turners life and legacy, revealing him to be a giant of the nineteenth century and a beacon for the twenty-first.