Joseph Mallord William TurnerBritish, 1775–1851Self-Portrait
May one see it?
Unknown
The National Gallery
London, United Kingdom
The owner is known; whether it is on view today is not.
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
About the painting
Tate Britain holds a self-portrait of J. M. W. Turner which it dates to c. 1798 or c. 1799, when the artist was aged about 23 or 24 years old.
The oil painting on canvas portrait measures 74.3 cm × 58.4 cm (29.3 in × 23.0 in). It presents a full face-on half-length view of the fresh-faced young artist, looking directly out at the viewer. His brightly lit features stand out against a featureless brown background. The Romanticised and idealised view of Turner shows him as a prosperous Georgian gentleman, befitting his success and status, with the collar of his dark coat turned up, two waistcoats, silver over blue, a white shirt and a white neckcloth. Notably, the composition has reduced the impact of Turner's prominent aquiline nose.
Read on
The painting may have been made in anticipation of or to mark Turner's election as an Associate member of the Royal Academy of Arts (ARA) in November 1799. It was donated to the British nation as part of the Turner Bequest on his death in 1851. It was held by the National Gallery until 1910, when it was transferred to the Tate Gallery.
This portrait was the basis for the depiction of Turner on the reverse of the Series G Bank of England £20 note issued from 2020, in front of a version of his 1838 painting The Fighting Temeraire.
In 2026, Dr. James Hamilton, a biographer of Turner and considered a leading expert on the painter, argued that the work is likely not by Turner himself, but by contemporaneous portrait specialist John Opie. Hamilton argues that the painting is stylistically consistent with Opie, and notes that "there’s nothing else" like it in Turner's work. He also states that the painting was described in early lists of Turner's work merely as a "portrait of Turner", and only became known as a "self-portrait" over time.
Particulars
- Accession number
- NG458
In the catalog
Sources
- Wikidata
- Image: The National Gallery — J. M. W. Turner · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Meanwhile, in the life of Joseph Mallord William Turner
The whole life1798
The large watercolours of North Wales
The large watercolour views he made in North Wales in 1798, such as his depiction of Caernarvon Castle, are counted among the great landscapes of European art; by the age of 25, according to Wilson, he had developed watercolour into a new medium capable of much the same expressive power as oils.
October 1798
Sixty commissions for watercolours
He boasted to his friend Joseph Farington that he had 60 commissions for watercolours from different customers and was earning more money than he could spend; on his sketching excursions he was always on the lookout for saleable subjects.
1799
Tears before a painting by Claude Lorrain
The collector John Julius Angerstein invited him to see his paintings; standing before Claude’s “The Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba” Turner burst into tears and explained that he would never be able to paint anything like it. Only when he finished “Dido Building Carthage” (1815) did he feel he had achieved something comparable.
4 November 1799
Elected an associate of the Royal Academy
On 4 November 1799 Turner, by then a popular artist, was elected an associate (corresponding) member of the Royal Academy.
1801
The triumph of the “Bridgewater Sea Piece” at the Academy
“Dutch Boats in a Gale” (the “Bridgewater Sea Piece”), commissioned for 250 guineas by the Duke of Bridgewater, one of the richest men in England, “took the Academy by storm” and was hung in the best location of the whole exhibition: in the Great Room, centred, opposite the entrance.
1801
Birth of Evelina, Sarah Danby’s daughter
Turner never married, but is generally believed to have been the father of the two older daughters of his housekeeper, the widow Sarah Danby — Evelina (born 1801) and Georgiana; their discreet relationship lasted twelve years.
