English painters

Joseph Mallord William Turner  Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 1775 –19 December 1851) was an English Romantic landscape painter, watercolourist and printmaker. Turner was considered a controversial figure in his day, but is now regarded as the artist who elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivalling history painting. Although renowned for his oil paintings, Turner is also one of the greatest masters of British watercolour landscape painting. He is commonly known as "the painter of light“ and his work regarded as a Romantic preface to Impressionism.

 He entered the Royal Academy of Art schools in 1789, when he was only 14 years old, and was accepted into the academy a year later.  Turner travelled widely in Europe, starting with France and Switzerland in 1802 and studying in the Louvre in Paris in the same year. He also made many visits to Venice.  Important support for his work also came from Walter Ramsden Fawkes, of Farnley Hall, near Otley in Yorkshire, who became a close friend of the artist.

The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons

The Battle of Trafalgar

Rain, Steam and Speed–The Great Western Railway

Modern Rome – Campo Vaccino

Joshua Reynolds  Sir Joshua Reynolds (16 July 1723 – 23 February 1792) was an influential 18th-century English painter, specialising in portraits and promoting the "Grand Style" in painting which depended on idealisation of the imperfect. He was one of the founders and first President of the Royal Academy. King George III appreciated his merits and knighted him in 1769.

Heads of Angels

Cupid

Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond painted 1758

Thomas Gainsborough  Thomas Gainsborough (14 May 1727 – 2 August 1788) was a British portrait and landscape painter.

 Imagine you are in the gallery and have a chance to listen to a guide telling you about the most famous portrait by T. Gainsborough “Portrait of Duchess de Beaufort”. Read the text and find out…  What was typical for Gainsborough’s portraits?  What makes the portrait look true to life?  What was the women fashion like in the 18th century?

“Portrait of Duchess de Beaufort”

Mr and Mrs Andrews

Mr and Mrs William Hallett

Self-Portrait (1754)