Since the 18th century, English painters and those who bought their work had displayed a particular interest in landscapes - England had originated a fundamentally new approach to landscape: the landscape garden. England was therefore the home of a number of gifted who gave almost exclusive attention to native or foreign landscapes (including townscapes, harbor scenes and seascapes). The distinctive landscape atmospheres and moods established by different kinds of weather or light offered an important aesthetic attraction in this kind of work; the precision with which they were recorded decided its value as art. The public and the buyers wanted the pictures to make the same impression on them, if at all possible, as the landscape itself might make. Beginning in the1820's, three painters in particular introduced significant innovations which the Impressionists drew upon, Joseph M. W. Turner being one of them. Turner was partly inspired by the 17th century Dutch seascape tradition and by dramatic 18th century shipwreck scenes from the early stages of Romantic art. While Romanticism in general left the Impressionists fairly unmoved, Turner's tendencies towards a meditative and philosophical approach to pictorial content offered a form of Romantic art that remained important. Some of his early training had been as a topographic draftsman and he was also influenced by the 17th-century French landscape painter Claude Lorrain, mostly in the use of atmospheric effects. His unique application of the Romantic view of Nature included an eye for the expressive atmospherics of light and color phenomena. Wherever he visited he studied the effects of sea and sky in every kind of weather. Instead of merely recording factually what he saw, Turner translated scenes into a light-filled expression of his own romantic feelings.

Turner's father was a barber, and his mother died when he was very young. As a boy, he received little schooling. His father taught him how to read, but this was the extent of his education except for the study of art. By the age of 13 he was making drawings at home and exhibiting them in his father's shop window for sale. Turner was 15 years old when one of his paintings was exhibited at the Royal Academy. By the time he was 18 he had his own studio. Before he was 20 print sellers were eagerly buying his drawings for reproduction. He quickly achieved a reputation and was elected an associate of the Royal Academy. In 1802, when he was only 27, Turner became a full member. He then began traveling widely in Europe and Venice became the inspiration of some of Turner's finest work.

As he grew older Turner became an eccentric. Except for his father, with whom he lived for 30 years, he had no close friends. He allowed no one to watch him while he painted. He gave up attending the meetings of the Royal Academy, and his acquaintances did not see him for months at a time. Turner continued to travel but always alone. He still held exhibitions, but he usually refused to sell his paintings. When he was persuaded to sell one, he was dejected for days. In 1850 he exhibited for the last time, and one day shortly thereafter Turner disappeared from his house. His housekeeper, after searching for many months, found him hiding in a house in Chelsea, where he had been ill for a long time. He died the following day. Turner left a large fortune that he hoped would be used to support what he called "decaying artists", and his collection of paintings was bequeathed to England. Although known for his oils, Turner is regarded as one of the founders of English watercolor landscape painting. Some of his most famous works are "Calais Pier", "Dido Building Carthage", "Rain, Steam and Speed", "Burial at Sea" and "The Grand Canal, Venice".