Turner has been described as the first truly modern British painter. His work has been linked to the Romantic movement, which swept across Europe in the late 18th and early 19th centuries and his late works – in particular, their seeming abandonment of form and use of strong, bold colours – has been associated with the rise of Impressionism in the 1870s.  

Yet, when Turner died in 1851, his work was widely ridiculed and criticised in the press, and his behaviour was described as erratic and eccentric. Turner’s supposed lack of manners, and his working-class accent were often pointed out as ill-befitting an artist of his stature. However, as a student at the Royal Academy school and earlier in his career as a young and ambitious artist, many of his contemporaries came from similar backgrounds, and Turner could count some of the grandest aristocrats in Britain as his clients and friends.  

The first part of this module will explore how an artist who trained and found success during the Regency period, came to be considered out of step with his times during the reign of Queen Victoria, and yet is now be considered a modernist innovator. 

In the second part, we will explore, in more depth, the Romantic movement. The ideals of Romanticism changed the ways in which artists and their publics understood the relationship between art and society. Turner’s relationship with Romanticism was subtle and complex, but his work pointed towards ways in which artists could engage with the modern world around them and portray the terrifying as well as the beautiful.