Joseph Mallord William Turner was English artist, one of the greatest and most original of all landscape painters. Turner was considered a controversial figure in his day, but is now regarded as the artist who elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivaling history painting. Although renowned for his oil paintings, Turner is also one of the greatest masters of British watercolor landscape painting. In 1856 the Court of Chancery awarded all the works remaining in his possession at his death to the National Gallery – about 300 oils and 19, 000 drawings and watercolors. He is commonly known as ‚the painter of light‘ and his work is regarded as a Romantic preface to Impressionism.