The Tate Britain

The Tate Britain is a museum dedicated solely to displaying British art dating from 1500 to the present. The Tate displays work by almost every well known British artist and is especially proud of the works of Joseph Turner who is considered by most experts to be the most celebrated painter of the country.
Admitted to the Royal Academy School at the age of 14 and began his painting career with watercolours.  In 1796 he began painting with oils and is still one known as one of the most prolific painters of all times.

His first picture, Fisherman at Sea was painted in 1796 and is a beautiful example of Turner’s gifted use of natural light effects and his marine subjects. In later years he started to use oils that were very translucent and evoked a sense of pure light with a shimmer. The best example of his technique can be seen in Rain, Steam and Speed – The Great Western Railway where the objects in the painting are barely recognizable.
Turner’s interest in evanescent light made his paintings in the vanguard of all English paintings and greatly influenced the Impressionist artists, especially Claude Monet who was a student of Turner’s work.
One of Turner’s most sought after paintings; Giudecca, LaDonna Della Salute and San Giorgio were auctioned in 2006 for almost 36 million dollars. The Tate has loaned their extensive collection to museums around the world including Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, New York in America.