How Turner Painted

Book excerpt: A detailed examination of the painting techniques J. M. W. Turner used to create his masterpieces. Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) was a prolific master of landscape and marine painting in nineteenth-century Britain. His attention to color and atmosphere produced breathtaking images of nature, now immortalized in oil paintings, exquisite watercolors, and works on paper. How Turner Painted guides readers through the artist’s groundbreaking techniques, including experiments with modified paint media, innovative uses of watercolor, and painstaking processes for creating a composition. Author of the acclaimed Turner’s Painting Techniques, Turner expert Dr. Joyce Townsend returns to the subject with two hundred high-quality color reproductions and cutting-edge X-ray photography. Tasmania-based artist, writer, and teacher Tony Smibert also contributes a chapter about Turner from a contemporary painter’s perspective. Gallerygoers, artists, museum educators, curators, art historians, and conservation professionals are sure to treasure this authoritative guide to one of Britain’s most important painters.