'J M W Turner is the greatest British artist of all time.' Whether
or not this statement is incontestable, he is certainly one of the
best known and most enduringly popular, his major works eminently
recognizable. Turner achieved fame early: the son of a barber, he
made himself wealthy from his art while still in his 20s and
remained rich until his death. Yet, for all his fame, he was a
secretive man and much of his life - particularly the more private
aspects of it - are shrouded in mystery and enigma. He was able to
fend off the curious in his lifetime, and was 'protected' in death
by those anxious to preserve their hero's reputation. As a
consequence, biographers of Turner then and now face an uphill
struggle in attempting to reconstruct his life and proceed from the
same starting-points: the same established documentary sources, the
same corpus of art works. This author re-asserts the central facts
of Turner's life, and his particular - even peculiar - traits of
character. Hamilton is a good exponent of Turner's art itself, but
this is possibly not the priority within the context of this book.
It would not be chosen primarily for its accounts of Turner's
paintings, watercolours and sketches, but rather for the insights
that it offers into the artist's life. With this goal in mind,
Hamilton proceeds from the art historian's standpoint to look at
the life behind the art. (Kirkus UK)
The definitive biography of J.M.W. Turner. '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 In 1799, aged just 24, Turner became an
Associate of the Royal Academy. While influential collectors
competed to buy his paintings, he travelled widely, observing
landscape and people and gathering material for a cycle of images
that would come to express the collective identity of Britain. In
this lucid blend of vibrant biography and acute art history, James
Hamilton introduces Turner to a new generation of readers and
paints a picture of a uniquely generous human being, a giant of the
nineteenth century and a beacon for the twenty-first.
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