Circa 1799
Oil on canvas

Turner famously disliked having his portrait painted, an awkwardness heightened by his awareness that, even as a young man, many of his contemporaries found his features coarse and at odds with the poetic aspirations of his creations. It is remarkable, then, that he made this self-portrait, one of only a handful of specifically figurative works in his output.  Scholars have speculated that it was made on the occasion of Turner’s election on 4 November 1799, aged just twenty-four, to the status of Associate Royal Academician (ARA). Another possibility is that it was produced a couple of years later, when on 10 February 1802 (shortly before his twenty-seventh birthday) he became the youngest full member elected to the Royal Academy up to that date.  However, the earlier date is generally thought the more likely, and also coincides with Turner’s move from the family home in Covent Garden to his own lodgings on Harley Street in a recently developed, and fashionable area.

The portrait shows a self-possessed young man, starring out confidently at the viewer from the surrounding darkness. Turner’s bright and attentive eyes are deeply set beneath his brow, and cast into slight shadow by the light falling directly from above. The light also highlights his hair, which may have been dressed and powdered in the current fashion by his father, who still worked as a barber.  Turner’s outfit also hints at an aspiration to style, with the necktie worn in a dandyish manner. He may have been indebted for many of these elements to a portrait of his erstwhile collaborator, Thomas Girtin (1775-1802), which was painted by John Opie at roughly the same date (National Portrait Gallery, London). This is of almost the same dimensions, and similarly isolates the sitter against a dark background to emphasise the qualities of the face.