JMW Turner 1775-1851    
           
             
The quintessential romantic and Victorian landscape artist, the painter of light. In Britain this type of painting extended from about 1800 to 1850, but certainly in the Pre-Raphaelites and their influence we see qualities of this visual revolution, with its focus on the imaginative and subjective, on the emotions, and on the visionary-indeed, even the mystical. Typically one would penetrate into the physical world of nature to find avenues into other dimensions. For the student of Victorian literature, best to start with John Ruskin's Modern Painters.

See Edmund Burke for his discussion of the Sublime, one key to understanding Turner and Victorian romanticism. See also French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, especially his Confessions. And of course go to William Blake; in music, Beethoven, and even think about the figure Napoleon cast for himself as a heroic commander delighting in the grand battle scene.

John Constable

Thomas Girtin

   Turner's Rain-Steam-Speed  

For a large selection of Turners, go to: www.tate.org.uk/collections/ collection_search_simple.jsp?group=turner - 21k -

The Tate Museum

The Turner Society Web Site: http://www.turnersociety.org.uk/

Turner Society

For a firm starting point, go to The Victorian Web: http://65.107.211.206/painting/turner/

Victorian Web