“My business is to paint what I see, not what I know is there.””

“J.M.W. Turner's Poem dedicated to Ivan Aivazovsky (1842)Like a curtain slowly drawnIt stops suddenly half open,Or, like grief itself, filled with gentle hope,It becomes lighter in the shore-less dark,Thus the moon barely wanesWinding her way above the storm-tossed sea.Stand upon this hill and behold endlesslyThis scene of a formidable sea,And it will seem to thee a waking dream.That secret mind flowing in theeWhich even the day cannot scatter,The serenity of thinking and the beating of the heartWill enchain thee in this vision;This golden-silver moon Standing lonely over the sea,All curtain the grief of even the hopeless.And it appears that through the tempestMoves a light caressing wind,While the sea swells up with a roar,Sometimes, like a battlefield it looks to me The tempestuous sea,Where the moon itself is a brilliant golden crownOf a great king.But even that moon is always beneath theeOh Master most high,Oh forgive thou meIf even this master was frightened for a momentOh, noble moment, by art betrayed…And how may one not delight in thee,Oh thou young boy, but forgive thou me,If I shall bend my white headBefore thy art divine Thy bliss-wrought genius...””

J.M.W. Turner. Making of a Master by Warrell, Ian Paperback

“...indistinctness is my forte...””

“I hate married men ; they never make any sacrifice to the Arts, but are always thinking of their duty to their wives and families, or some rubbish of that sort .””

“Could I weep my soulInto one precious pearlDeep in the sea I'd let it lieLost, where no waves curl. - ””

Fossils of a Future Time?

“Whose heart is pure, pure is his ear.- ””

Fossils of a Future Time?

“During an interlude of peace in 1802, a consortium of patrons clubbed together to send Turner to Paris, in order to study in the Louvre. To begin with, he embarked on a tour of the Alps, whose sublime beauty and constant climatic change taught the young artist the awesome scale and mutability of nature. The Alpine tour resulted in some spectacular watercolours and oil paintings. Although he never witnessed an avalanche himself, an account of a devastating one in the Grisons prompted Turner to create the following painting in 1810. The tragic event occurred at Selva, killing twenty-five people. The canvas depicts huge rocks, driven before the weight of snow, crashing down upon a small chalet. Turner opted to portray not a single human figure, concentrating on the unparalleled might of nature instead.””

Delphi Collected Works of J.M.W. Turner

“J. M. W. Turner is regarded by many as Britain’s greatest artist, whose works have become iconic symbols of the Romantic art movement. He became known as ‘the painter of light’, due to his increasing interest in brilliant colours and the contrast between light and dark in his many landscapes and seascapes. Turner was born on 23 April 1775 in London. His father, William Turner (1745-1829), was a barber and wig maker and his mother, Mary Marshall, came from a family of butchers. In 1785, his mother suffered from severe mental illness and was admitted first to St Luke's Hospital for Lunatics in Old Street in 1799 and then Bethlem Hospital in 1800, where she died four years later.””

Delphi Collected Works of J.M.W. Turner

“My paintings bring me nothing but pain. The realisation is so immeasurably below the conception””

“How to be happy, civilisation's bait,Is vomited up on every peaceful dayAnd redevoured by dogs.- ””

Fossils of a Future Time?

“Peace requires a discipline more iron than war.- ””

Fossils of a Future Time?

Quotes by W. J. Turner