With clear writing, this is the ideal introduction to J. M. W. Turner’s life and work for anyone interested in British painting in its golden age. Few British artists have ever achieved such a wide range of style in oil painting, watercolor, drawing, and engraving as J. M. W. Turner. This classic book in the World of Art series traces the artist’s career from youthful, picturesque views and watercolors of Gothic ruins, to romantic landscapes and historical compositions, to the darker abstracts of his later career. Though these late works were incomprehensible to his contemporaries, Turner is understood today as one of the greatest British painters because of these pioneering explorations into abstraction, which prefigured the art of the twentieth century. In Turner, Graham Reynolds weaves together the artist’s biography and criticism of his work through all phases of his career, paying particular attention to the importance of foreign travel and the influence of Claude Lorrain and Nicolas Poussin. First published in 1969, Turner has long served as an outstanding introduction to Turner’s life and art. Now with full-color illustrations and a new introduction by David Brown, this updated and revised edition reflects recent discoveries and interpretations of Turner’s work, and will serve as the best available study of the artist for a new generation of readers.

William Turner (1775-1851) was simultaneously a romantic and a realist--and yet he transcended both styles. This book opens up Turner's paintings, demonstrating that he was not simply illustrating nature, but that his pictures speak directly to the eye as nature does itself.

Accessible, extensively researched, and beautifully illustrated, this updated volume by renowned scholar and author Murdo Macdonald sheds light on the history and cultural significance of Scottish art. At a time when issues of Scottish identity are the subject of fierce debate, Murdo Macdonald illuminates Scotland’s artistic past and present in this classic text in the World of Art series. Ranging from Neolithic standing stones and the art of the Picts and Gaels to Reformation and Enlightenment art and major figures in the contemporary art scene, Scottish Art explores the distinctive characteristics of Scottish art through the centuries. It examines the cultural heritage and intricate patterns of Celtic design, the importance of Highland and coastal landscapes, long-standing connections between French and Scottish artists, and how each of these factors influenced the development of art in Scotland. This new edition includes more than 200 full-color images of Scottish art from prehistoric times to the present. With masterpieces from artists such as Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Joan Eardley, this book is a thorough, authoritative, and accessible introduction to Scottish art.

With clear writing, this is the ideal introduction to J. M. W. Turner’s life and work for anyone interested in British painting in its golden age. Few British artists have ever achieved such a wide range of style in oil painting, watercolor, drawing, and engraving as J. M. W. Turner. This classic book in the World of Art series traces the artist’s career from youthful, picturesque views and watercolors of Gothic ruins, to romantic landscapes and historical compositions, to the darker abstracts of his later career. Though these late works were incomprehensible to his contemporaries, Turner is understood today as one of the greatest British painters because of these pioneering explorations into abstraction, which prefigured the art of the twentieth century. In Turner, Graham Reynolds weaves together the artist’s biography and criticism of his work through all phases of his career, paying particular attention to the importance of foreign travel and the influence of Claude Lorrain and Nicolas Poussin. First published in 1969, Turner has long served as an outstanding introduction to Turner’s life and art. Now with full-color illustrations and a new introduction by David Brown, this updated and revised edition reflects recent discoveries and interpretations of Turner’s work, and will serve as the best available study of the artist for a new generation of readers.

Short introduction with over 100 paintings highlighting the revolutionary approach by Turner whose powerful sweeping strokes turned away from portraiture and prepared the way for Impressionism. The English Romantic painter Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 1775–19 December 1851) was a brilliant landscape artist, a watercolourist and printmaker. His style, powerful and fierce, melding the elements with humankind are thought by many to have prepared the way for Impressionism. In his time he was controversial, but his focus on land and seascapes widened the palette of artists and their audience, and his impressionistic brushwork prepared the way for the fragmentation of the modern era. This wonderful new book brings to life his greatest achievements, with such paintings as The Fighting 'Temeraire’, Inside Tintern Abbey and Rain, Steam and Speed (The Great Western Railway).

A wide-ranging and engaging introduction to the place and power of color in life and art by John Gage, author of the award-winning Color and Culture. The complex phenomenon of color has received detailed attention from the perspectives of physics, chemistry, physiology, psychology, linguistics, and philosophy. However, the people who work most closely with color—artists—have rarely been canvassed for their opinions on this mysterious subject. John Gage sets out to address this omission by focusing on the thoughts and practices of artists. Color in Art is concerned with the history of color, but is not itself a history; instead each chapter develops a theme from a different scientific discipline, as seen from the viewpoint of such diverse artists such as Vincent van Gogh, Wassily Kandinsky, Sonia Delaunay, Bridget Riley, and Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri. Drawing on examples through the ages, from ancient times to the present, the many topics covered include flags, synesthesia, theosophy, theater design, film, chromotherapy, and chromophobia. Featuring a new foreword by art writer Kelly Grovier outlining contemporary developments in the study of color and an updated bibliography, this new edition of this classic text offers a wide-ranging and engaging introduction to the place and power of color in life and art.

J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851) was arguably Britain's greatest painter. Through a remarkable amount of groundbreaking research, and by rigorously examining the existing evidence concerning the artist's first 40 years. Eric Shanes has been able to unearth a mass of new information, forge many fresh links and provide a great number of original insights. His own training as a painter has enabled him to bring a profound understanding to the practical side of Turner, and thereby reveal many aspects of the output that have hitherto been overlooked. In order to intensify our grasp of the interrelationship between Turner the man and Turner the painter, this book contains over 450 illustrations that form an integral part of the story. As a consequence, we are able to perceive the exact trajectory of Turner's formative years and early maturity more clearly than ever before. Within a strictly chronological framework, Turner's personal and creative developments are charted in tandem, offering an exploration of his strengths and weaknesses of character, and his intellectual and emotional complexity. Shanes provides an unrivalled account of Turner's creative aims and responses, his imaginative and technical evolution, his poetic aspirations and identifications, his strong sense of duty and his educative ambitions. No less closely scrutinised are Turner's mastery of art-world politics, his wider political outlook, his professional relationships, his sales, financial dealings and investments, his travels, and even the buildings in which he lived and worked. Ultimately, we are shown that, despite his difficulties with verbal communication, Turner possessed one of the sharpest and most dazzling minds in the entire history of art. -- from dust jacket.