Devonport and Dockyard, Devonshire

1808–1824

Summers at Walter Fawkes’s Farnley Hall

From 1808 to 1824 he stayed many summers at Farnley Hall near Otley in Yorkshire with its owner Walter Fawkes, becoming almost part of the family, with a room assigned for his exclusive use.

1820s

Print series for publishers

In the 1820s he worked on several topographical print commissions: “Picturesque Views on the Southern Coast of England” (1814–1826) and “The Rivers of England” (1822–1826) for the Cooke brothers, “Picturesque Views in England and Wales” (1824–1838) for Charles Heath and “The Ports of England” (1825–1828) for Thomas Lupton.

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”.