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THE SURFACING OF A MASTERPIECE
   Joseph Mallord William Turner, 1834 Penry Williams, 1839 Penry Williams, 1874
Today's art aficionado, when queried concerning British fine art, will assertively recognise the preeminent Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) as the nation's champion. Enormously prolific as well as exceedingly diversified, J. M. W. Turner's legacy resounds amongst the finest landscape masters in history. His style formed the foundation and threshold for Impressionism; and although renowned for his oils, Turner pushed the envelope of watercolour technique so beyond his peers that his contemporaries humbly referred to him as "the painter of light."
Son of a London hairdresser, Turner was born on April 23, 1775. By the time he was eleven, the prodigy was exhibiting paintings in his father's shop window. At thirteen he was employed as a draftsman for architects Thomas Hardwick and Thomas Malton, the latter considered by Turner to be his "real master." He lived with his uncle, Joseph Mallord William Marshall, from the time he was fourteen and enrolled in the Royal Academy of Arts under its then president, Sir Joshua Reynolds, the same year. He was the Academy's youngest student ever. As a young lad of only fifteen, Turner was asked to present one of his watercolours for the Academy's Summer Exhibition of 1790.
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