Standing in the Sun

This critically acclaimed portrait of the man behind the art is available in paperback for the first time.

Joseph Mallord William Turner is arguably Britain's greatest painter, whose range of work encompasses seascape and landscape, immensely powerful oil paintings and intimate watercolours. The son of a Covent Garden barber and a woman who died in Bethlehem hospital, Turner achieved fame and fortune during his lifetime. Although he possessed a wide-ranging imagination, he was an often incoherent speaker and writer, and his muddled will produced much discord - it is a wonder that, despite avaricious relatives and incompetent lawyers, so many of his works are now in the hands of the nation, and publicly proclaim his genius.
In this biography, Anthony Bailey has drawn on archival material, scholarly literature and research, as well as studying many of Turner's sketchbooks, paintings and watercolours. Uncovering fresh material, as well as pulling together previously known facts, Bailey has shed new light on this complicated and secretive artistic figure.