J. M. W. (Joseph Mallord William) Turner

Born in London in 1775, J. M. W. Turner showed artistic promise early and entered the Royal Academy Schools as a teenager. He first earned attention for detailed watercolors and topographical views, then steadily built a reputation through regular exhibitions.

As his career developed, he became famous for ambitious landscapes and seascapes filled with atmosphere, energy, and changing light. Travels in Britain and across Europe gave him a wide range of subjects, and paintings such as The Fighting Temeraire, Snow Storm: Steam-Boat off a Harbour's Mouth, and Rain, Steam and Speed show how boldly he pushed painting toward a more modern feeling.

Turner died in 1851, but his influence only grew afterward. A large body of his work was left to the British nation, and he remains closely associated with Tate Britain, where many of his paintings and sketches are held.