Surrey Networks Study Day
UNDERSTANDING TURNER: THE MAN, HIS LIFE AND HIS WORK
From 9.30am until 4pm
At The Menuhin Hall
Cobham Road, Stoke d'Abernon, KT11 3QQ
Organiser: Speaker – Professor Maria Chester
HIS LIFE: Joseph Mallord William Turner was born into a troubled family and destined to become an artist.
His father, William, a central figure throughout his life, encouraged him to pursue his ambitions. Turner’s
relationships, character, dreams, notes, poems, lead to our own portrait of Turner, helping us to understand the man,
what we perceive from his everyday life leads to the second talk. He loved to travel and we are lucky to be able to
follow him in his trips thanks to his notes on the sketches, citing places and dates.
HIS WORK: We owe him a new approach to landscape, and new techniques, applied mostly to watercolours. He
added songs and poems to his paintings to reinforce their meaning. He was almost a story-teller who knew exactly
what to show and how to show it. He applied everything he experienced in his paintings. Together with
“Understanding Turner: the man and his life” this talk aims to leave a permanent impression about one of our great
British artists of all times: Joseph Mallord William Turner.
Turner was a contradiction in himself: born in Covent Garden at the centre of London he became one of the most
important British landscape painters. In the 19th century, he became the most recognisable British artist abroad
Application forms available from the Surrey Networks Website
For more information please visit the Surrey network website