J.M.W. Turner at 250: The first painter to depict the Industrial Revolution

J.M.W. Turner at 250: The first painter to depict the Industrial Revolution

‘Portrait of Joseph Mallord William Turner,’ drawing in red and black chalk with grey wash, by Charles Turner, 1841. Courtesy of the British Museum, London. In 19th-century England, a new realism in painting emerged, driven by the country’s more advanced capitalist development compared to the European continent. Benjamin Robert Haydon (1786–1846) created the first urban street scenes, while Scottish artist David Wilkie (1785–1841) elevated genre…