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In the early 19th century, there was a talented painter who was gifted, famous at a young age, and whose works were worth a fortune, but he almost ignored money. His style was ahead of the times, and he never defended it despite all the doubts and criticisms.

Turner Self-Portrait

He was cold and aloof, but as long as he picked up the paintbrush, the light and shadow in his paintings could immediately move people's hearts. He spent his whole life pursuing pioneers, but was ridiculed by the times. However, a century later, people set up an award in his name to pay tribute to pioneers. The birth of every genius seems to be legendary: On April 23, 1775, a ray of warm sunshine penetrated the window of a small town in England, and a lovely boy was born.

The sun gently kisses the baby's tender body

It is said that when he was born, he kept waving his hands towards the sun, as if trying to grab the light. His father looked at the little guy and thought it was a blessing from the holy light, so he loved him even more.

Turner: Bayard, Apollo and the Sibyl

He is William Turner. The family of this "son of sunshine" is not well-off, and his mother's mental illness makes the family chaotic. But he doesn't seem to care about these. What he likes to do most is to lie in front of his father's barber shop window, looking out foolishly, enjoying the pleasure of the sun caressing his cheeks. Seeing the child looking out the window like this all day long, his father seems to understand something. So...he took him into his barber shop as an apprentice to show his love for him.

Turner: Venice from the Porch of Santa Maria del Salvatore

Of course, this little guy told his father with his actions that he was not suitable for cutting hair. In addition to enjoying "photosynthesis" in front of the window every day, he also liked to scribble on paper facing the sun. As time went by, his father had to let him put down the razor and learn the art on the spot. The only thing that puzzled his father was why this child had a special liking for the sun?

Turner: Lake Thun, Switzerland

Since he couldn't be a barber, his father had to arrange for him to study watercolor in a studio. At that time, many small shops liked to use various watercolor works to decorate their facades, and his father sent him to paint just so that he could earn more money for the family after he finished his studies.

Turner: Trees by the River

But after less than a year of study, the studio teacher was a little overwhelmed. It was not because he could not draw, but because he learned too quickly and drew too well. After all, a teenager's work could be put in the window to attract customers, how could the teacher feel? At the same time, his father's barber shop also gained a lot of repeat customers because of his paintings. The father never expected that his son would transform the barber shop into a "gallery" in front of his eyes. What he didn't expect was that two years later, his son received an "offer" from the Royal Academy of Arts in the UK.

Turner: Greenwich Park, London

His wonderful talent, coupled with elite training, made him study painting more diligently.

His father even retired early for this reason and tried every possible way to provide support for his talented son.

Extraordinary diligence

Unparalleled talent

Top-notch learning environment

Full support from family

With such a good hand in hand, it would be unjust if he didn't become famous. From then on, he turned his dream into reality, using this pair of "hands kissed by the sun" to depict the rays of warm sunshine in his childhood eyes.

Turner, The Roman Forum, for Mr. Soane's Museum

However, he was not interested in the academic courses at the Royal Academy of Arts, and was still focused on the light and shadows of the sky as he did in his childhood. What was different from his childhood was that when he grew up, he looked out from the window of the barber shop to the Thames. The unpredictable sunlight always brought him endless inspiration.

Turner: Waterloo Bridge on the Thames

In order to take pictures, he would stay overnight by the sea, admiring the rising sun on the horizon or the cold light of the moon at night. In order to capture the changing light and shadow, he even risked his life to let the sailors tie him to the mast of the ship, leaving the sea to the wind and waves. Even so, he would still stare at the rays of "holy light" that penetrated the clouds.

Turner: The Snowstorm

It is said that there was a famous saying in the European art world in the early 19th century: "Light is God." Those scenes that are extremely ordinary in the eyes of others are full of roughness and tenderness in his eyes, as sonorous as a symphony and as sad as a lyric poem:

Turner: Fishermen at Sea

Turner: Coal Harbour in Moonlight

In his eyes, the moonlight was not peaceful but cold;

The sunlight is not gentle, but intoxicating.

From then on, he selectively ignored the academic sketching techniques, and he wanted to let his "brushwork bring light".

Turner: Fingals Cave, Staffa Island

Turner: Hastings Beach Fish Market

Turner: The Port of Dieppe

The most valuable thing is that when his young colleagues admired his natural painting skills, he was very modest: talent alone is not enough, you must work hard and practice more... There is only one secret to success, hard work and hard work. "

Turner's "Greetings from Venice"

Turner's Walton Reach

At that time, when people mentioned landscape painting, they would think of the simple countryside of the Netherlands, the southern style of France, the quiet towns of Switzerland, the rural scenery of Tuscany...

However, the appearance of this Englishman made landscape painters from other countries pale in comparison. Even those watercolor landscapes that had been painted countless times by predecessors were "favored" again because of him. Therefore, the Thames River, the Rhine River, and Lake Buttermere were all transformed into fairyland by his own hands. Especially the Thames River, which he was very familiar with, was enough to be a business card of London after his handwriting:

Turner: The Thames at Weybridge

The light yellow is dim and a little dizzy. The light in his paintings seems gentle but not artificial. The afterglow of the setting sun is close at hand, as if it has created a body for the light and shadow on the horizon. Such a top-notch visual experience naturally attracts the favor of art dealers. The golden light and shadow bring him a golden salary. For him, it is a great fortune for an artist to gain both fame and fortune during his lifetime.

Turner: The Thames at Windsor

Fortunately, this "son of sunshine" did not let this get to his head. He did not choose "mass production" for the sake of money. Regardless of the size of the order, he always did his best to paint and never gave the buyer a perfunctory response. He almost forgot that "time is money", so he always put in several times more effort than the reward to create.

Turner: Italian Landscape with Bridge and Tower

Turner: Fishing on Blyth Beach at Low Tide

Others may not understand that what he really wants is the light in the sky that he can never catch. He wants to use his paintbrush to capture it and keep it. The unattainable golden light is something that cannot be exchanged for any amount of money.

Turner: Foggy Morning

However, his painstaking pursuit of light and shadow has caused some critics to disdain:

“Exaggerated, artificial, and getting further and further away from nature”

"A clumsy smear, a dirty yellow"

This sudden criticism left him somewhat confused: "Isn't it natural to paint the Thames?" "Don't the light and shadows on the horizon change all the time?"

Turner: Ships at the Thames Estuary

So he put the steam train into the canvas, mocking the critics in the most direct way. In Britain after the Industrial Revolution, the only thing that left nature was the roaring steam-powered cities. When the pastoral idyll was drowned out by the sound of machines, where was nature?

Turner: Rain, Steam and Speed

The consequence of the genius's anger was that he was no longer willing to accept orders from those wealthy people.

Since no one understands me, just ignore everyone.

The more you are criticized, the more you want to create your own style;

The more the academic school criticized him, the more he deviated from the norm: bright yellow, dark yellow, turmeric, orange yellow... He sprinkled all the pigments that could express the changes of light and shadow on the canvas. In his paintings, the chromaticity of daylight is comparable to the number of lipstick colors. After all, without the constant changes in the chromaticity of light and shadow, even the most beautiful scene would be eclipsed. He tried to pull the audience into the painting, immersing them in the ever-changing light and shadow, making it difficult to distinguish between the real and the fake.

Turner's Eruption of Vesuvius

After experiencing the hazy dreams of youth, the prime of youth, and the prosperity of middle age, he was questioned in old age. However, his attitude towards all this was "neither sad nor happy".

Turner: Tivoli, The Cascade Hotel

Material abundance could not enrich his spirit. The loneliness and indifference in life gave him the perseverance to realize his dream. The criticism he received became the driving force for his style innovation. His eyes were always looking into the distance, looking at the quiet Thames River, looking at the light yellow light. He matched his works with the poet Pope's pastoral poems, allowing himself to be washed by the light.

Turner's Landscape with Water

He was fed up with the chaos in London and felt helpless about the controversy over academic painting techniques.

Perhaps he is more suitable to be a hermit who is away from the world.

Because there is only one belief in his heart: light.

On December 19, 1851, this outstanding landscape painter died quietly in his Chelsea apartment in London due to senile depression. In his dying moments, he seemed to recall the real touch of the warm sunshine in his childhood. Under the orange sunlight, his hands painted the golden warm sunshine on the canvas of the sky. Legend has it that his last words before his death were: "The sun is God." Throughout his life, he never changed his belief in light.

Turner: The Thames near Walton Bridge

From then on, he was hailed as the "Painter of Light" and became one of the few proud figures in the British art world and even in European landscape painters in the 19th century. More than a hundred years later, his name became synonymous with British avant-garde visual art. He is forever - William Turner.

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