I think nobody gets indifferent before a Turner's painting, the power of the elements of nature and the light.

He started painting early in his life, encouraged by his father, a barber, who would exhibit his son's drawings on his shopwindow.

He lives a long and successful life as a professional painter, who joins the academy, and lives on good commissions.

He also travels a lot through England and later on to Europe, France, Swiss, Italy and Venice. He sketches all over the places and he left a collection of over 19 thousand sketches. As a traveller he painted a lot of watercolours.

His paintings evolve from a more figurative to an almost abstract painting, where colour and light reigns. He is a master of atmosphere and his paintings convey much emotion and are very dramatic, namely on scenes of storm at sea or other powerful manifestations of nature.

He was very secretive about his life, both on his paint method as on his personal relationships, probably owing to his mother's madness, who is institutionalized. He himself has a morbid and depressive character, showing some irritability. He was not a likeable person. Delacroix gets acquainted with him and has no great opinion of his person.

His later more abstract works bring out some criticism and negative critique. Considered a romantic, I find some of his paintings really modern and ahead of his time.

A great english documentary on Turner