JMW TURNER

Turner was a British Romantic landscape painter, water-colourist, and print-maker. Turner was considered a controversial figure in his day, but is now regarded as the artist who elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivaling 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 is regarded as a Romantic preface to Impressionism.

Turner's talent was recognised early in his life. Financial independence allowed Turner to innovate freely; his mature work is characterised by a chromatic palette and broadly applied atmospheric washes of paint. 
According to David Piper's The Illustrated History of Art, his later pictures were called "fantastic puzzles." However, Turner was still recognised as an artistic genius: the influential English art critic John Ruskin described Turner as the artist who could somewhat convey the moods of nature through his art.

I particularly like this piece by turner due to the use of colour and depth to the painting. To get the effect of the violent waves and stormy clouds Turner used very confident and bold brush strokes.

Fact about the work: Dutch boats are shown on course for collision in stormy weather. Dark clouds contribute to the sense of danger. The painting was commissioned by the 3rd Duke of Bridgewater as a companion piece to a 17th-century Dutch seascape in his possession.