J.M.W. Turner is probably the greatest painter Britain has ever produced. Both profoundly original and astonishingly prolific, he bequeathed a rich and complex legacy - from our notion of a 'Turner sky', referring to spectacular sunsets, to the Turner Prize. This book assesses the range and complexity of Turner's work, investigating his artistic and literary influences, interpreting his political views, and above all describing the extraordinary evolution of his approach and techniques - from his early detailed topographical watercolours to his later almost abstract paintings, which foreshadowed modernism.
