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J.M.W. Turner

1 of 43 portraits of J.M.W. Turner

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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J.M.W. Turner

by J.M.W. Turner
watercolour, circa 1790
3 3/4 in. x 2 3/4 in. (95 mm x 70 mm) oval
Given by William Cosmo Monkhouse in memory of, 1902
Primary Collection
NPG 1314

Sitterback to top

  • Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851), Landscape painter. Sitter associated with 43 portraits, Artist or producer associated with 4 portraits.

Artistback to top

  • Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851), Landscape painter. Artist or producer associated with 4 portraits, Sitter associated with 43 portraits.

Linked publicationsback to top

  • Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 625
  • Walker, Richard, Miniatures: 300 Years of the English Miniature, 1998, p. 71 Read entry

    Turner was one of the major masters of colour and a forerunner of Impressionism. This typically unassuming miniature, of the great artist as a boy, belonged to John Ruskin, who was told that, when asked to make a self-portrait, Turner had said, 'it is no use taking such a little figure as mine; it will do my drawings an injury; people will say such a little fellow as this can never draw' (Ann Dart, cited in Ruskin XIII, p 473). It is one of three self-portraits. Most other existing portraits of him are surreptitious drawings and caricatures, made by fellow artists, who respected his diffidence and reluctance to sit formally.

  • Walker, Richard, Regency Portraits, 1985, p. 505

Events of 1790back to top

Current affairs

Attempts to modify the Test and Corporation Acts are defeated, despite campaigning by dissenters such as the prominent Unitarian preacher and pamphleteer, Richard Price. The Acts prevented those outside the established church from holding government or military office.

Art and science

Joseph Mallord William Turner exhibits his first painting at the Royal Academy; a watercolour of The Archbishop's Palace, Lambeth.
The Firth to Clyde and Oxford to Birmingham canals are begun.

International

Edmund Burke publishes Reflections on the Revolution in France. A landmark work of opposition to the Revolution which offered a critique of the radical philosophy behind events in France; the Reflections have been read as an articulation of the foundations of modern British conservatism. George Vancouver explores the north west coast of America.

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