Turner

An engaging account of Britain's greatest painter, told through works from the Yale Center for British Art's extensive collection

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) is one of the most recognizable names in the history of British art. Elected to the Royal Academy in 1802, Turner broke new ground with his oils, watercolors, and prints. His landscapes and marine paintings are widely considered the crowning achievement of British Romantic art.

This book, the inaugural installment in the Yale Center for British Art's Collection Series, explores the museum's astonishing Turner holdings—the largest outside the United Kingdom—in a manner that will engage the general reader and expert alike. Six sections of plates provide a comprehensive overview of the artist's career, place the works within their historical and cultural context, and include new discoveries regarding the identification of locations, landscapes, and dates. Gillian Forrester's supplementary essay offers a novel account of Turner's innovative printmaking practice, illuminating his fraught collaborations with other printmakers. Complementing an exhibition at the YCBA and a satellite exhibition at the Dordrechts Museum (The Netherlands), both planned for the 250th year of Turner's birth, this publication celebrates the artist's unparalleled vision as exemplified in the YCBA's world-class collection of his work.

Distributed for the Yale Center for British Art

Exhibition Schedule:

Yale Center for British Art

(April–July 2025)

Dordrechts Museum

(October 11, 2025–January 25, 2026)

About the Authors

Ian Warrell is an independent curator specializing in British art of the nineteenth century.

Gillian Forrester is an independent curator specializing in British art from the eighteenth century to the present and former senior curator of prints and drawings at the Yale Center for British Art.