William Ralph Turner

William Ralph Turner (20 April 1920 - 10 July 2013) was a painter from Manchester.

William Ralph Turner was born in Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester in 1920. He has become known as one of the last great living Northern English industrial artists. He is certainly one of the last who knew and was influenced by L.S. Lowry.

For about 60 years Turner painted the North West and surrounding areas, often from memories and images obtained while indulging his passion for cycling long distances. A prolific painter, he painted thousands of pictures, including several hundred that featured the Stockport Viaduct. Well known in art circles in the North West. He was discovered by Peter Burdett (of The Pitcairn Gallery) in the 1970s. Peter commissioned him to paint Lyon in France. He continued to find fame,recognition and some fortune in the 1980s when he had exhibitions in Windsor and Eton. He was re discovered by David Gunning, an art dealer from Todmorden, in 2000, when Turner was 80. Over the next five years Gunning sold as many as 3000 Turner paintings, starting a process by which interest in and prices for his work began to rise dramatically.

Parkinson's Disease eventually forced Turner to stop painting. A major exhibition of Turner's work took place at Clark Art in Hale, Cheshire, from September to October 2010, during which over 120 paintings were sold at prices ranging up to £50,000.

References

William Ralph Turner by Stuart Archer & Bill Clark

William Turner, An English Expressionist by Paul Barker and Stephen Whittle

William Ralph Turner, Compelling Visions by Dr Paul Morgan

External links

• http://modernbritishfineart.com/William-Ralph-Turner.htm
• http://www.avianova.co.uk/willturner/biography/bio/html
• http://www.clark-art.co.uk
• http://www.todmoredenfineart.co.uk