Joseph Mallett

Joseph Mallord William Turner kept a window cracked in his London studio for decades, even in winter, so the fog could drift in and blur his paintings. He once tied himself to a ship’s mast just to watch a storm, later turning the gale into The Slave Ship’s swirling pinks and blacks. Why he belongs here: hunt down his Rain, Steam and Speed, the train’s blur tells you everything about speed before cars existed.