The enthralling biography of one of Britain's most admired, misunderstood and celebrated artists.
Franny Moyle studied Art History at St John's College, Cambridge. She enjoyed a career in arts programming at the BBC that culminated in her becoming the corporation's first Commissioner for Arts and Culture. She is now a freelance executive producer and writer and lives in east London. She is the author of Constance- The Tragic and Scandalous Life of Mrs Oscar Wilde and Desperate Romantics- The Private Lives of the Pre-Raphaelites.
Moyle's superb biography rigorously tackles the myths
surrounding Turner's life and presents a vivid portrait of a
man whose ideas and behaviour were rooted in the 18th century - and
whose work is too often taken out of context * Mail on Sunday *
An exemplary work... Moyle explores the whole of his long life,
expertly charting the artist's development from his precocious
conquering of the Royal Academy to his late, experimental
paintings.
Moyle is especially good at delineating Turner's artistic methods
and her enthralling account is filled with an impressive
understanding of his unique talent.-- Ian Critchley * Sunday Times
*
A thorough, balanced and wonderfully fluent account. Franny Moyle
[is] one of the best in the long line of [Turner's] biographers
One of Turner's many achievements was to paint Britain in all its
moods ... and show his peers the real nature and variety of their
own country. In her immaculate biography Moyle has done something
similar with the man himself.-- Michael Prodger * Times *
Fresh and lively ... Turner's life is given a vivid colour and
depth as Moyle deftly interweaves his professional career with
his private life. Moyle writes with sensitivity about individual
pictures and series, and is good at explaining the context -- Jenny
Uglow * BBC History Magazine *
Elegant and thorough.
Moyle's superb evocation of these aspects of her subject allows us
to see Turner less as the "misunderstood genius" who moved in a
sphere untouched by the realities of the day, and "more as an arch
manipulator and central player in the great game of art that
evolved across the late 18th and 19th centuries, a man praised to
the hilt by a great many of his contemporaries [who] acknowledged
his significance in the creation of the idea of the independent
artist".
It is to Moyle's credit that she is able to make this persuasive
case while narrating Turner's life with verve, intelligence and
insight, and while bringing to life the world in which he lived
with care and subtlety. This is a biography that leaves you with a
fresh impression of both Turner and his time. It frees its
subjects from myth, and imbues them with the quality of wonder. --
Matthew Adams * I News *
Moyle is good on Turner's momentous times, interweaving history,
the history of art and the public's attitude toward art. -- Claudia
Fitzherbert * Telegraph *
It is hard, on one level, to believe his sublime canvases ...
come with a character attached at all. But Moyle tells the human
story well in a book of rigorous scholarship and beauty.
She offers an earthy, warts-and-all depiction of the Romantic
master JMW Turner that is shaped by the dogged realism of a
low-born man who had an exceptional artistic vision.
This is well written and meticulously researched.
All we once had left of Turner were his paintings, now we have
another vibrant biography to commemorate his art, and where it took
us.
Franny Moyle tells a compelling story of a self-taught
prodigy... A restless painter who always sought new forms of
expression in watercolour and oils.
Moyle is an unpretentious art historian, and she has written an
inviting and easily digested biography of the best of British
painters -- Stephen Fay * Economist *
Of the two recent books on Turner, Moyle's is the more satisfying,
not least because it allows for the intimacy of reading. Less is
more when it comes to biography - and Moyle gives Turner's restless
life a perspective and a frame -- Frances Wilson * New Statesman
*
Very well researched . . . Moyle achieves an unusual level of
empathy * Time Out (on 'Desperate Romantics') *
Moyle's art-historical perceptions make this detailed and
beautifully balanced biography a compelling read... Turner emerges
from it larger... revealed as a man of his moment -- Brian Morton *
Scottish Herald *
The words on the page offer views every bit as captivating as
Turner's ageless panoramas * Big Issue *
A fat, satisfying popular history of the man who was arguably
Britain's greatest painter * Financial Review *
Miss Moyle tells a very good story. She is sound on the art
without allowing art historicism to
weigh her down. She is also excellent on the complicated politics
of the Royal Academy. We get a feel for the man in all his
cantankerousness and eccentricity, but she also brings out the
humour and -at least after he had made his own fortune-the
generosity, especially towards his fellow artists
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