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 :. | Stable | No title | Arc-s spot | Die funfte Plage von agypten | First draft |
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PEREDA, Antonio de
Spanish Baroque Era Painter, ca.1611-1678 Spanish painter. He was the son of a minor painter of the same name (d 1622) and, after his father died, about 1627 he moved to Madrid with his mother. There he entered the studio of Pedro de las Cuevas, and his fellow pupils included such artists as Juan Carreeo de Miranda, Francisco Camilo, Jusepe Leonardo and Antonio Arias Fernendez. He must also have known and studied the work of many masters esteemed at court, particularly Vicente Carducho, echoes of whose work can be found in the former's early paintings. Pereda received protection early on from a member of the Royal Council, Francisco de Tejada, and later from Giovanni Battista Crescenzi, a painter and patron who was in Spain from 1617. Pereda probably completed his training through contact with Crescenzi's collection and eventually he lived in Crescenzi's house. In 1634 Pereda executed Aid to Genoa (Madrid, Prado) for the decoration of the Salen de Reinos in the Casen Buen Retiro, Madrid, a project involving all the leading artists of Madrid, including Carducho, Velezquez, Zurbaren and Jose Leonardo. The death of Crescenzi in 1635 deprived Pereda of further court commissions and seems to have stopped him painting any further secular works other than still-lifes. Also in 1635 he began a well-documented career as a religious painter, producing large altar paintings and many other medium-sized works, probably for private worship. Outstanding among these is the Immaculate Conception (1637) in the Convento de los Felipenses, Alcale de Henares (Madrid). The important allegorical painting Vanitas
Lorenzo Valles
Spanish , 1831-1910
ROSA, Salvator
Italian Baroque Era Painter, 1615-1673 Italian painter, draughtsman, etcher, poet and actor. He was one of the most original artists and extravagant personalities of the 17th century. His most popular and influential works were his landscapes, the wild and mountainous beauty of which contrasted with the pastoral scenes of Claude Lorrain. Yet Rosa also painted macabre subjects, erudite philosophical allegories and grand historical themes; he was, moreover, the most significant satirical poet of the Italian 17th century, and there is a close relationship between his poetry and painting. His earliest biographers, Filippo Baldinucci and Giovanni Battista Passeri, both of whom knew him well, described at length his fiery temperament