William Turner 1920-2013

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY - WILLIAM TURNER
William Ralph Turner, born in 1920 was the last of the great Northern Industrial painters who belonged to the Northern School of artists influenced by L.S. Lowry and which included Alan Lowndes, Theodore Major, Roger Hampson and Harold Riley. Lowry followed a personal vision, little influenced by the works of other painters. William Turner, however, in the fifties and sixties was a regular visitor to the exhibitions held at the Crane Kalman Gallery, Manchester, where he absorbed the works of the German Expressionists and the French Fauves particularly Beckmann, Vlaminck, Soutine, Chagall, Rouault, Segonzac. He re-interpreted their colours and techniques and applied them in a very personal way to the industrial landscapes of the N.W. of England.


For over fifty years Turner painted the industrial landscapes of the North-West, depicting images of towering cotton mills, pre-clean-air-act skies, smoking chimneys and swarming humanity struggling to survive amidst the industrial chaos. But always there is a lyrical quality in his works, an empathy with his subject matter; there is never any stiffness in his compositions -- his rows of terraced houses, his cotton mills, his public buildings and his viaducts sway and lean in all directions. In a dark industrial valley, his mills are often painted red, yellow, blue or orange, helping to alleviate the grim reality of what he is depicting.


We also see evidence of his amazing imagination and wide-ranging subject matter distorted images of individual figures or of groups, individual images of cinemas, theatres, pub interiors, small terraces of houses, grimy northern streets, a milkman with his horse, rag and bone men, a road sweeper, two children playing, then the spectrum widens to vast panoramas of the Stockport Valley with the viaduct in the background or of the huge mills of Manchester, Stockport and Salford.


Turner depended for his scintillating creations on his amazing memory -- he could re-create on canvas a street scene, an industrial canal or a view from fifty years ago with such accuracy that the older generation can instantly identify the scenes. This remarkable gift has enabled him to record the times through which he has lived, the fast-disappearing industrial landscape of the 19th and early 20th century and to evoke amongst viewers a feeling of nostalgia for things past. It is essential that such a painter should be given the fullest recognition and that his works be preserved for posterity.


Turner's work is more and more widely collected and is in the collections of Sir Peter Ustinov, Sebastian Coe, Eddie Shah, Freddy Pye, Stockport Art Gallery, Saab Motors, Manchester Education Committee and throughout the world.


In 2010 a best-selling book on his life and work written by Stuart Archer and Bill Clark was published by Clark Art Ltd.


William Turner died on June 10th 2013 at the age of 93. He will be remembered as on one of the most important northern artists of the 20th Century.







William Turner

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  • Sold - Sold
  • Reserved - Reserved

William Turner - Barge and Canal, Castlefields

Oil on Board

29½ x 23½ ins (74.93 x 59.69 cms)

Price: £11,500.00

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William Turner - Chartonnay

William Turner

Chartonnay

Oil on Board

14 x 16 ins (35.56 x 40.64 cms)

Price: £3,250.00

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William Turner - Cheshire

William Turner

Cheshire

Oil on Board

24 x 20 ins (60.96 x 50.80 cms)

Price: £10,250.00

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William Turner - Chestergate

William Turner

Chestergate

Oil on Board

28 x 24 ins (71.12 x 60.96 cms)

Price: £9,750.00

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William Turner - Henley Town Hall

William Turner

Henley Town Hall

Oil on Board

12 x 16 ins (30.48 x 40.64 cms)

Price: £5,500.00

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William Turner - Industrial Landscape With Figures

Oil on canvas

20 x 24 ins (50.80 x 60.96 cms)

Price: £6,500.00

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William Turner - Marton Church

William Turner

Marton Church

Oil on Board

8 x 10 ins (20.32 x 25.40 cms)

Price: £3,500.00

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William Turner - Oxford Road, Manchester

William Turner

Oxford Road, Manchester

Oil on Board

39 x 32 ins (99.06 x 81.28 cms)

Price: £11,000.00

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William Turner - Sid

William Turner

Sid

Oil on Board

12 x 10 ins (30.48 x 25.40 cms)

Price: £4,750.00

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William Turner - Villeurbanne

William Turner

Villeurbanne

Oil on Board

8 x 9 ins (20.32 x 22.86 cms)

Price: £2,500.00

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William Turner - William Ralph Turner

William Turner

William Ralph Turner

Book

12 x 9¾ ins (30.48 x 24.77 cms)

Price: £35.00

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William Turner - Coronation Street

William Turner

Coronation Street

Oil on Board

20 x 24 ins (50.80 x 60.96 cms)

P.O.A.

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William Turner - Hillgate, Stockport

William Turner

Hillgate, Stockport

Oil on Board

24 x 20 ins (60.96 x 50.80 cms)

Reserved Reserved

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William Turner - A Great Night Out in Blackpool

Oil on Board

7¾ x 8¾ ins (19.68 x 22.23 cms)

Sold Sold

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William Turner - Albert Square, Manchester

William Turner

Albert Square, Manchester

Oil on Board

8 x 10 ins (20.32 x 25.40 cms)

Sold Sold

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William Turner - Church on a Hill

William Turner

Church on a Hill

Oil on Board

26¾ x 19¾ ins (67.95 x 50.17 cms)

Sold Sold

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William Turner - Crossing the Bridge

William Turner

Crossing the Bridge

Oil on Canvas laid on Board

18½ x 22½ ins (46.99 x 57.15 cms)

Sold Sold

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William Turner - Street near Lyon

William Turner

Street near Lyon

Watercolour

6 x 4.75 ins (15.24 x 12.07 cms)

Sold Sold

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William Turner - The Tall Warehouse

William Turner

The Tall Warehouse

Oil on Board

16 x 20 ins (40.64 x 50.80 cms)

Sold Sold

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Featured Artist

LUCI MANFREDI

This is a selection of works we have for sale by Luci Manfredi, an artist new to the gallery.

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General Information

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155, Ashley Road, Hale
Cheshire, WA14 2UW

Tel: +44 (0)161 929 5150
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Email: art@clark-art.co.uk