JMW Turner

Turner's sample study of Chichester Canal featuring boats in a natural landscape. Along the edges of the canal bank, figures can be seen in rowing boats, and a large ship is sailing twoards the viewer in the distance. The painting is made up of muted brown, green, yellow and blue tones, giving the scene an atmospheric hazy afternoon feel. In the distance, the spire of Chichester Cathedral can be picked out.

• Artist JMW Turner
• Artwork Chichester Canal: Sample Study
• Image size 65.4 x 134.6 cm
• Material Oil on canvas
• Date of work c.1828
• Credit Original: Oil on canvas 65.4 x 134.6 cm ® Tate, London

Joseph Mallord William Turner was born in London; he remained a Londoner and kept a Cockney accent all his life despite dominating British landscape painting throughout the first half of the 19th century. He established a reputation in the Royal Academy, first as a topographical watercolourist and then within a few years as a painter of sublime and historical landscapes. From the mid-1790s he settled on the routine he maintained for much of his life: touring in summer and working in the studio in the winter months. He opened his own gallery and had many patrons and admirers as well as detractors. After his death a large body of his works in oil and watercolour was given to the British nation, with many on show at Tate Britain.