Joseph Mallord William Turner was an English Romantic landscape painter, printmaker and watercolourist, whose style can be said to have laid the foundation for Impressionism. Although William Turner was considered a controversial figure in his day, he is now regarded as the artist who elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivalling history painting.

About Joseph Mallord William Turner: The English Artist, Joseph Mallord William Turner was born in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, London, England. He entered the Royal Academy of Art schools in 1789, when he was only 14 years old. Although renowned for his oils, Joseph William Turner is also one of the greatest masters of British watercolour landscape paintings. He is commonly known as "the painter of light".