Figures in a Building

1829

The death of his father

His father, who had lived with him for thirty years and worked as an assistant in his studio, died in 1829; the loss strongly affected Turner, who began to suffer fits of depression afterwards, and he finally abandoned his own gallery.

1829

Paris, Normandy and Brittany

In the twenty-year period from 1821 to 1844 he visited several European countries, studying the old masters and taking long hikes into the countryside: in 1829 Paris, Normandy and Brittany, and three years later Paris for the second time.

1830–1840s

Criticism in the 1830s–1840s and Ruskin’s defence

His innovative works, bordering on abstraction, gave him a reputation for madness: the Victorian public preferred realism and sentimentality, and Queen Victoria refused to knight him. John Ruskin came to his defence, calling him “the greatest artist of all time”.

1833

Vienna and Venice: down the Danube, back by the Rhine

He visited Vienna and Venice, travelling down the Danube and returning via the Rhine; the trip to Venice inspired important works such as “Venice, from the Porch of Madonna della Salute” (1835), “Venice, the Bridge of Sighs” (1840) and “The Sun of Venice Going to Sea” (1843).

1835–1836

Denmark and Prussia, then Switzerland and the Val d’Aosta

In 1835 he visited Denmark, Prussia, Hamburg and Rotterdam, and in 1836 France and Switzerland, crossing the Alps into the Val d’Aosta valley.

1840–1844

Last journeys: Venice and Switzerland

On a second trip to Venice (1840) he also visited Trieste and Coburg, and in 1841 and 1844 he made two final trips to Switzerland, in his sixties.