English Romantic Painter, 1775-1851 Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 1775 ?C 19 December 1851) was an English Romantic landscape painter, watercolourist and printmaker, whose style is said to have laid the foundation for Impressionism. Although Turner was considered a controversial figure in his day, he is now regarded as the artist who elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivalling history painting. Turner's talent was recognised early in his life. Financial independence allowed Turner to innovate freely; his mature work is characterised by a chromatic palette and broadly applied atmospheric washes of paint. According to David Piper's The Illustrated History of Art, his later pictures were called "fantastic puzzles." However, Turner was still recognised as an artistic genius: the influential English art critic John Ruskin described Turner as the artist who could most "stirringly and truthfully measure the moods of Nature." (Piper 321) Suitable vehicles for Turner's imagination were to be found in the subjects of shipwrecks, fires (such as the burning of Parliament in 1834, an event which Turner rushed to witness first-hand, and which he transcribed in a series of watercolour sketches), natural catastrophes, and natural phenomena such as sunlight, storm, rain, and fog. He was fascinated by the violent power of the sea, as seen in Dawn after the Wreck (1840) and The Slave Ship (1840). Turner placed human beings in many of his paintings to indicate his affection for humanity on the one hand (note the frequent scenes of people drinking and merry-making or working in the foreground), but its vulnerability and vulgarity amid the 'sublime' nature of the world on the other hand. 'Sublime' here means awe-inspiring, savage grandeur, a natural world unmastered by man, evidence of the power of God - a theme that artists and poets were exploring in this period. The significance of light was to Turner the emanation of God's spirit and this was why he refined the subject matter of his later paintings by leaving out solid objects and detail, concentrating on the play of light on water, the radiance of skies and fires. Although these late paintings appear to be 'impressionistic' and therefore a forerunner of the French school, Turner was striving for expression of spirituality in the world, rather than responding primarily to optical phenomena. Rain, Steam and Speed - The Great Western Railway painted (1844).His early works, such as Tintern Abbey (1795), stayed true to the traditions of English landscape. However, in Hannibal Crossing the Alps (1812), an emphasis on the destructive power of nature had already come into play. His distinctive style of painting, in which he used watercolour technique with oil paints, created lightness, fluency, and ephemeral atmospheric effects. (Piper 321) One popular story about Turner, though it likely has little basis in reality, states that he even had himself "tied to the mast of a ship in order to experience the drama" of the elements during a storm at sea. In his later years he used oils ever more transparently, and turned to an evocation of almost pure light by use of shimmering colour. A prime example of his mature style can be seen in Rain, Steam and Speed - The Great Western Railway, where the objects are barely recognizable. The intensity of hue and interest in evanescent light not only placed Turner's work in the vanguard of English painting, but later exerted an influence upon art in France, as well; the Impressionists, particularly Claude Monet, carefully studied his techniques.  Related Paintings of Joseph Mallord William Turner :. | Rain, Steam and Speed The Great Western Railway before 1844 | Crossing the Brook by J. M. W. Turner | First draft | No title | Storm |
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Hippolyte-Lucas
French, 1854-1925
William Hoare
William Hoare of Bath RA (c. 1707 - 12 December 1792) was an English painter and printmaker, co-founder of the Royal Academy noted for his pastels. Born near Eye, Suffolk, Hoare received a gentlemanes education in Faringdon. He showed a marked aptitude for drawing and was sent to London to study under Giuseppe Grisoni, who had left Florence for London in 1715. When Grisoni returned to Italy in 1728, Hoare went with him, travelling to Rome and continuing his studies under the direction of Francesco Imperiali. He remained in Rome for nine years, returning to London in 1737/8. Failing to establish himself in London, Hoare settled in Bath, an expanding spa town popular with the wealthier classes. He obtained numerous commissions, the most important being for official portraits of social leaders of the day (including George Frideric Handel) and political men. There are several versions of most of these, suggesting that he had a studio, and they were further publicised by the production of mezzotints by leading engravers of the day. Hoare himself was a delicate etcher and published a number of private plates, mostly of family and friends, including Miss Hoare (probably Mary), Christopher Anstey and the 3rd Duke of Beaufort. His pastels were influenced by Rosalba Carriera.
Caroline Watson
British 1760-1814,Daughter of James Watson. In 1780 she signed a stipple print of Isaac Watts and was soon employed by John Boydell (e.g. Prince William of Gloucester, 1784, after Joshua Reynolds). In 1785 she became Engraver to Queen Charlotte (1744-1818), a keen print collector. She was particularly fitted to working after miniatures, such was the delicacy of her engraving, and some of her best prints are portraits and small subjects after Samuel Shelley (c. 1750-1808). She did private commissions of this kind, notably for the Bute family, and also engraved large plates, some for the Boydell Shakespeare Gallery, including the Death of Cardinal Beaufort (1792) after Reynolds, allegedly at his request. She was employed by William Hayley (1745-1820) on his Life of George Romney Esq (London, 1809), and the correspondence involved shows her as a reliable and respected professional.