Turner

September 12, 2016
In this excellent biography, Moyle (Constance: The Tragic and Scandalous Life of Mrs. Oscar Wilde) forges a largely successful effort to undo the traditional view of the 18th- and 19th-century British painter as a "reclusive, squalid, seedy, and eccentric" man with beady eyes and dirty secrets. Instead, Moyle argues, Turner was "an arch manipulator and central player in the great game of art." She traces his life from his earliest ambition to become a painter through his adventurous travels throughout Europe, witnessing the landscapes and seascapes he sketched and painted, to his final illnesses and last days. The backdrop is the French Revolution and the rise and fall of Napoleon Bonaparte. Rather than delving deeply into the lives of Turner's mentally ill mother, common-law wives, and neglected daughters, as other biographers have done, Moyle illuminates Turner's devotion to the Royal Academy, fellow artists, and art patrons, business acumen, and astonishing artistic innovations. She excels at art description, bringing his paintings vividly to the mind's eye (though she doesn't detail his erotic drawings). Readers looking for an art-lover's understanding of the man Moyle characterizes as "one of the most ambitious, inventive, technically brilliant, and popular artists of his time" will be well rewarded by this fine depiction. Agent: Georgina Capel, Georgina Capel Associates (U.K.).

He was the finest landscape painter of his time, and he knew it. This new biography explains why.J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851) painted the sunrise over Norham Castle with as much invention as he depicted sea battles, moments in British history, and Welsh villagers struggling to get piglets into a boat in choppy shallows. Born to a barber and wig-maker, Turner became one of the youngest ever Academicians at London's Royal Academy and was so beloved by John Ruskin that the eminent art critic cataloged all 30,000 of the artist's works (including, to Ruskin's surprise, erotic drawings) after Turner's death. Like all good storytellers, Moyle (Constance: The Tragic and Scandalous Life of Mrs. Oscar Wilde, 2012, etc.) begins with high drama: Turner's death in a state of "moral degradation" in a neighborhood of Chelsea. From there, she returns to Turner's Covent Garden youth and chronicles his successes and failures. This is a popular rather than scholarly work, light on technical analysis but heavy on scenes from Turner's life. Moyle does highlight Turner's technical innovations, including his experiments with backlit paintings and scioptic balls ("a kind of early wide-angle or fish-eye lens" used to create panoramic views), and she describes well such iconic paintings as The Battle of Trafalgar and The Fighting Temeraire. Her focus, however, is on personal stories: Turner's relationship with the widow Sarah Danby, with whom he fathered two daughters; his mother's incarceration in a mental asylum; and his controversial investment in the Dry Sugar Work near Spanish Town in Jamaica, "a cattle farm that depended on slavery for its labour." Throughout, the author enlivens her tale with perfect details, as when undertakers bringing Turner's large, expensive coffin to his Chelsea home can't get the casket through the door. Moyle writes that young Turner was "an instinctive and tireless networker, massively self-motivated, undeterrable in his determination." This excellent biography shows the benefits, and the pitfalls, of such single-minded obsession. COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

May 1, 2016

An authority on Abraham Lincoln whose books include the New York Times best-selling A. Lincoln, White expands his purview to include Ulysses S. Grant, whom he hopes to redeem from a lot of 20th-century bad press. Seven years of intensive research with primary sources went into the making of this book.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from October 1, 2016
The subtitle of this major biography is certainly not an exercise in over-billing. The life and career of J. M. W. Turner, considered one of the greatest British landscape painters, does, indeed, make for a fulfilling story, energetically followed by Moyle (Constance: The Tragic and Scandalous Life of Mrs. Oscar Wilde, 2012) in what will be considered the definitive biography for many years to come. Turner's work, both oil and watercolor, fell into the Romantic movement, but his sketches and paintings are underscored here as singular achievements. Moyle achieves a lucid, incisive analysis of the stages in the development of Turner's technique as well as in the progress of his increasing appreciation by the art world and the art-collecting public. Turner saw increasing success as a storyteller through his paintings and sketches because it was important to him to give witness to the vast and intricate world with all its social complexities that he saw all around him. A shy, awkward boy evolved into a deeply feeling, mature adult very aware of art as both expression and commercial commodity, he was able to live the life he wanted and from it draw a living. A basic background in art history is all that is necessary to enjoy and learn from this monumental work.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)