Turner's Modern World, Exhibition, Tate Britain, London: until 12 September 2021

Turner’s talents were recognised from an early age, and in 1789, when he was only 14, he started going to the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Unlike many other artists of the time who painted past events, Turner was one of the few painters to focus on what was happening during his lifetime.

Turner often used watercolours to paint the dramatic events that he witnessed, and his painting ‘The Burning of the Houses of Parliament’, for example, portrays the fire that broke out in London in 1834. He was especially interested in the power of the ocean, and you’ll see that many of his works show the wreckage of sunken slave ships . You’ll also notice that during Turner’s later years paintings such as ‘Rain, Steam and Speed’ became quite fuzzy and blurry, capturing the sense of chaos and change of the industrial revolution. Although the majority of Turner’s paintings are of the sea or countryside, important political and military events such as the Battle of Waterloo appear in his work as well.

Featuring works by Turner from around the world, this exhibition explores Turner’s life and career as well as what it meant to be an artist during the industrial era.