Turner, Joseph Mallord William

Joseph Mallord William (1775-1851), a celebrated English landscape painter. He was the son of a London hairdresser. He was employed when a boy to color engravings. He became a painter of rivers, the sea, ships, and landscapes. His work was applauded warmly by Ruskin. Several hundred illustrations were prepared for publication under such titles as South Coast Scenery, England and Wales, Rivers of France, etc. Among his best known paintings are the Fighting Temeraire, Towed to Their Last Moorings, The Sun Rising Through a Mist, and The Slave Ship. He was an eccentric man and never married. He was wont to disappear from view, going on a tramp for months alone. At death he desired to be wrapped in the canvas of the painting known as The Building of Carthage, now in the National Gallery, London. He was buried in St. Paul's hard by Sir Joshua Reynolds.