Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851), was born in Cambridge, England. He entered the Royal Academy of Art schools in 1789, when he was only 14 years old, and was accepted into the academy a year later. A watercolour of Turner's was accepted for the Summer Exhibition of 1790 after only one year's study. He exhibited his first oil painting in 1796, Fishermen at Sea, and thereafter exhibited at the academy nearly every year for the rest of his life.

Turner's talent was recognized early in his life. He became a full art academician at the age of 29. Financial independence allowed Turner to innovate freely; his mature work is characterized by a chromatic palette and broadly applied atmospheric washes of paint. In his later years he used oils ever more transparently, and turned to an evocation of almost pure light by use of shimmering colour.

Turner travelled widely in Europe, starting with France and Switzerland in 1802 and studying in the Louvre in Paris in the same year. He also made many visits to Venice during his lifetime. At his request he was buried in St Paul's Cathedral, where he lies next to Sir Joshua Reynolds. His last exhibition at the Royal Academy was in 1850.