Turner - A Life
James Hamilton
THE DEFINITIVE BIOGRAPHY OF J.M.W. TURNER, REISSUED TO MARK THE 250TH ANNIVERSARY OF HIS BIRTH
'A pleasure to read'
A.S. BYATT
'With splendid clarity and shrewd humour, James Hamilton evokes the visceral world of a great artist and a fascinating character'
MIKE LEIGH, Academy Award-winning director of Mr. Turner
J.M.W. Turner became an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1799, aged just twenty-four. As influential collectors competed to buy his paintings, he travelled widely - in an era defined by industrial change and social turbulence, he observed both landscape and people, gathering material for a series of works that would come to express the collective identity of Britain.
Blending vibrant biography and art history, James Hamilton paints a remarkable portrait of an eccentric and enigmatic figure. He examines the fascinating conflicts of Turner's life and legacy, revealing him to be a giant of the nineteenth century and a beacon for the twenty-first.
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About James Hamilton
Reviews for Turner - A Life
Sunday Express
Hamilton's life gives us a real person ... comprehensibly human and belonging clearly in the England of his time.
Scotsman
Hamilton writes ... with gusto, bringing Turner to vivid three-dimensional life.
The Times
Turner was a phenomenon, a one-man artistic revolution whose energy can be felt through the pages of this inspiring biography.
Daily Telegraph
Hamilton's readable, unshowy life ... excellent.
Mail on Sunday
An excellent biography - revealing on the life, perceptive on the art.
Independent on Sunday
Admirably clear
Desmond Shawe-Taylor
Observer
A richly detailed biography . . . Hamilton maintains a steady course between academic respectability and an allowance for the drama and poignancy so clearly central to an accurate portrait of the subject
Los Angeles Times
Very satisfying . . . detailed, judicious and confidently grounded in the period
Washington Post
Lively
New Yorker
Well researched and fluidly written
New York Review of Books
A pleasure to read.
Sunday Express
Hamilton's life gives us a real person ... comprehensibly human and belonging clearly in the England of his time.
Scotsman
Hamilton writes ... with gusto, bringing Turner to vivid three-dimensional life.
The Times
Turner was a phenomenon, a one-man artistic revolution whose energy can be felt through the pages of this inspiring biography.
Daily Telegraph
Hamilton's readable, unshowy life ... excellent.
Mail on Sunday
An excellent biography - revealing on the life, perceptive on the art.
Independent on Sunday
With splendid clarity and shrewd humour, James Hamilton evokes the visceral world of a great artist and a fascinating character.
Mike Leigh