- Hardcover: 496 pages
- Publisher: Random House (Jun 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 140006015X
- ISBN-13: 978-1400060153
- Product Dimensions: 24.1 x 16.4 x 3.9 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,462,004 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
J.M.W. Turner was a painter whose treatment of light put him squarely in the pantheon of the world’s preeminent artists, but his character was a tangle of fascinating contradictions. While he could be coarse and rude, manipulative, ill-mannered, and inarticulate, he was also generous, questioning, and humane, and he displayed through his work a hitherto unrecognized optimism about the course of human progress. With two illegitimate daughters and several mistresses whom Turner made a career of not including in his public life, the painter was also known for his entrepreneurial cunning, demanding and receiving the highest prices for his work.
Over the course of sixty years, Turner traveled thousands of miles to seek out the landscapes of England and Europe. He was drawn overwhelmingly to coasts, to the electrifying rub of the land with the sea, and he regularly observed their union from the cliff, the beach, the pier, or from a small boat. Fueled by his prodigious talent, Turner revealed to himself and others the personality of the British and European landscapes and the moods of the surrounding seas. He kept no diary, but his many sketchbooks are intensely autobiographical, giving clues to his techniques, his itineraries, his income and expenditures, and his struggle to master the theories of perspective.
In Turner, James Hamilton takes advantage of new material discovered since the 1975 bicentennial celebration of the artist’s birth, paying particular attention to the diary of sketches with which Turner narrated his life. Hamilton’s textured portrait is fully complemented by a sixteen-page illustrations insert, including many color reproductions of Turner’s most famous landscape paintings. Seamlessly blending vibrant biography with astute art criticism, Hamilton writes with energy, style, and erudition to address the contradictions of this great artist.
Over the course of sixty years, Turner traveled thousands of miles to seek out the landscapes of England and Europe. He was drawn overwhelmingly to coasts, to the electrifying rub of the land with the sea, and he regularly observed their union from the cliff, the beach, the pier, or from a small boat. Fueled by his prodigious talent, Turner revealed to himself and others the personality of the British and European landscapes and the moods of the surrounding seas. He kept no diary, but his many sketchbooks are intensely autobiographical, giving clues to his techniques, his itineraries, his income and expenditures, and his struggle to master the theories of perspective.
In Turner, James Hamilton takes advantage of new material discovered since the 1975 bicentennial celebration of the artist’s birth, paying particular attention to the diary of sketches with which Turner narrated his life. Hamilton’s textured portrait is fully complemented by a sixteen-page illustrations insert, including many color reproductions of Turner’s most famous landscape paintings. Seamlessly blending vibrant biography with astute art criticism, Hamilton writes with energy, style, and erudition to address the contradictions of this great artist.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Hamilton is solid on the details of Turner's remarkable life, but this is more than just a biography. There are some fascinating and stimulating suggestions about the origins and meanings of many of Turner's greatest paintings, making this an exciting piece of art criticism as well as a work of great scholarship.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
From his birth to his last breath, James Hamilton has amassed a wealth of detail about the life and work of J M W Turner, in what is undoubtedly to remain the definitive work for some time to come. Apart from Turner himself, we also get something a portrait of the times he lived in, and his work is considered as part of the social and historical context - I had not realised just how much of his work incorporated subtle hidden or rather more overt social and political commentary.
The plates are relatively limited in number, so it would be a good idea to have a comprehensive book of reproductions to hand whilst reading, or else use the internet; one minor annoyance here is that it is not always made clear in the text when a work referenced is now lost or else in a private collection with no photograph available. One further annoyance is with the printing itself - to pack so much information into such a small book the text is a little on the small side and extends right towards the spine making it a little difficult to read. Nevertheless a recommended work.
The plates are relatively limited in number, so it would be a good idea to have a comprehensive book of reproductions to hand whilst reading, or else use the internet; one minor annoyance here is that it is not always made clear in the text when a work referenced is now lost or else in a private collection with no photograph available. One further annoyance is with the printing itself - to pack so much information into such a small book the text is a little on the small side and extends right towards the spine making it a little difficult to read. Nevertheless a recommended work.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
As someone who has always liked Turner's work from a not very knowledgable basis, I decided I wanted to know more, and bought this book.
It was just what wanted, and has fuelled my curiosity - I want to know more now! I also thouroughly enjoyed the way the book put his life in context of the enormously important period of history that he lived through.
My only critisism was that I would have liked more examples of his work within the book.
I also discovered an interesting coincidence (?) with a quote attributed to Turner and the Beatles song "I don't want to spoil the party". Well, John Lennon was an art student....
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A thorough telling of Turner's life and his work
I knew virtually nothing about the man behind the paintings I have seen in the Tate, but now having read this book I certainly do. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Sally Walker
Well Informed
A well detailed read giving a good insight into the man and his work. Very informative and full of interesting links to his contemporaries. Read more
Published 21 months ago by dubie
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