What is J. M. W. Turner?
[[File:Turner selfportrait.jpg|thumb|220px|right|His self-portrait]] [[File:Joseph Mallord William Turner - Snow Storm - Steam-Boat off a Harbour's Mouth - WGA23178.jpg|thumb|right|250px|''Snowstorm - steam boat off a harbor's mouth making signals in shallow water, and going by the lead'', painted in 1842]] [[File:The Fighting Temeraire, JMW Turner, National Gallery.jpg|thumb|250px|''The Fighting Temeraire tugged to her last berth to be broken up'', 1839]] '''Joseph Mallord William Turner''' ([[Covent Garden]], [[London]], 23 April 1775<ref>Exact date disputed</ref> – [[Chelsea, London|Chelsea]], London, 19 December 1851) was an [[English people|English]] [[painter]] and [[artist]]. He was one of the greatest artists of [[landscape]] painting, with a great mastery of light and colour.<ref>Bailey, Anthony 1997. ''Standing in the Sun: a life of J.M.W.Turner''. Sinclair Stevenson, London; HarperCollins, New York.</ref> His father was a maker of [[wig]]s. His mother was ill with mental problems, and the young Turner was sent to live with his uncle in [[Brentford]], West London, where he first started to paint. Turner became a student at the [[Royal Academy of Art]] school in London when he was 14 years old. He was accepted into the academy a year later. He had a [[watercolour]] painting in 1790 in the academy's important art show. He had only been studying for a year. In 1802, at the age of only 28, he was elected a member of the Royal Academy, and later became its Professor of Perspective. In 1802, Turner travelled around [[Europe]], visiting [[France]] and [[Switzerland]]. He also went to the [[Louvre]] in [[Paris]]. During his life, he often travelled across Europe, visiting [[Venice]] in [[Italy]] several times. As his personal style developed, he began to produce paintings that were generalised or [[exaggeration|exaggerated]] in form and colour, rather than realistic or detailed. These caused much argument as to their artistic value, but nowadays are his best loved works. On his death, he left 300 oils and 2