J.M.W. Turner is England’s most revered artist. Talented, ambitious and eccentric, Turner began

taking classes at the Royal Academy of Art at the age of 14. Over a 60-year career, he produced

more than 500 oil paintings and 2,000 watercolors, stylistically covering romanticism, impressionism and the abstract. A complex artist who traveled extensively, Turner experimented with color, light and texture, influencing generations of European and American artists.

Living through a transformation in Great Britain had a major influence on Turner’s work. In 1775, Turner was born into a world where London was Europe’s largest city, King George III was on the throne and England was the world’s preeminent sea power. By the time of his death in 1851, Queen Victoria was on the throne and Britain was a major industrial power.

This course will explore J.M.W. Turner and his world: from his mentor Sir Joshua Reynolds and his contemporary John Constable, to Turner’s influence on later artists such as Thomas Cole, Claude Monet and Mark Rothko. The poet Stanley Plumly observed of Turner, “He apparently lives, simultaneously and continuously, in at least two worlds, the one in front of him and the one he is dreaming.”