Franny Moyle studied Art History at St John's College, Cambridge. She enjoyed a career in arts programming at the BBC that culminated in her becoming the corporation's first Commissioner for Arts and Culture. She is now a freelance executive producer and writer and lives in east London. She is the author of Constance: The Tragic and Scandalous Life of Mrs Oscar Wilde and Desperate Romantics: The Private Lives of the Pre-Raphaelites.
“Was Turner the first popular artist of the modern age? Franny
Moyle certainly believes so…. Ms. Moyle, who has previously written
biographies of Mrs. Oscar Wilde and the Pre-Raphaelites, is
excellent at establishing… stylistic contexts… She has written a
fine book, deftly weaving psychological detail, painterly
observations and historical context.”—The Wall Street Journal
“[Moyle’s] history flows attractively… her text keeps us aware of
the Europe-wide wars…These wars and the meteorological melodramas
devised on his easel seem to complement one another, each shining a
lurid stormlight on what Moyle dubs an ‘epic’ era. Her book stirs
with its suggestions of the interconnections…. Moyle… lend[s]
Turner a rounded and sympathetic persona.” —The New York Review of
Books
“Moyle carefully documents Turner’s impact on European art, and she
includes a selection of color plates to illustrate the evolution of
his work. Turner’s unconventional life also makes fascinating
reading. This biography is highly recommended.”— Historical Novel
Society
“A textured portrait of a complex artist…. Moyle proves herself a
critic whose erudition stems from countless hours smelling the
paint and gazing at brushstrokes, as well as a biographer who’s
spent time in the archives, analyzing sketch books and hunting down
letters… As a general biography, ‘Turner’ is excellent. Moyle’s
background as a television producer comes through in her engaging
narrative structure, and her beautiful prose conveys Turner’s
glittering work and the sheer scope of his achievements.”—
Washington Post
“Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851), the outstanding British
landscape painter, was arguably the greatest British artist of all
time and possibly also the most prolific. He deserves a thorough
twenty-first century biography, and Franny Moyle has provided an
excellent one. The most interesting aspect of the book is her
account of Turner’s rise to pre-eminence in his own lifetime,
followed by vicissitudes when he came under bitter attack from
critics who neither liked nor understood his later, most innovative
work… Franny Moyle has provided us with a very welcome and
fascinating biography of the “great witness of sunshine and sky.”—
New Criterion
“An exemplary work… Moyle explores the whole of his long life,
expertly charting the artist’s development from his precocious
conquering of the Royal Academy to his late, experimental
paintings. Moyle is especially good at delineating Turner’s
artistic methods and her enthralling account is filled with an
impressive understanding of his unique talent.”– Ian Critchley,
Sunday Times
“A thorough, balanced and wonderfully fluent account. Franny Moyle
[is] one of the best in the long line of ]Turner’s]
biographers. One of Turner’s many achievements was to paint Britain
in all its moods … and show his peers the real nature and variety
of their own country. In her immaculate biography Moyle has
done something similar with the man himself.”— Michael Prodger,
Times
“Moyle is good on Turner’s momentous times, interweaving history,
the history of art and the public’s attitude toward art.”— Claudia
Fitzherbert, Telegraph
“It is hard, on one level, to believe his sublime canvases
... come with a character attached at all. But Moyle tells the
human story well in a book of rigorous scholarship and beauty…She
offers an earthy, warts-and-all depiction of the Romantic master
JMW Turner that is shaped by the dogged realism of a low-born man
who had an exceptional artistic vision…This is well written and
meticulously researched…All we once had left of Turner were his
paintings, now we have another vibrant biography to commemorate his
art, and where it took us.”— Lorraine Courtenay, Irish
Independent
“Elegant and thorough…Moyle’s superb evocation of these aspects of
her subject allows us to see Turner less as the “misunderstood
genius” who moved in a sphere untouched by the realities of the
day, and “more as an arch manipulator and central player in the
great game of art that evolved across the late 18th and 19th
centuries, a man praised to the hilt by a great many of his
contemporaries [who] acknowledged his significance in the creation
of the idea of the independent artist”. It is to Moyle’s credit
that she is able to make this persuasive case while narrating
Turner’s life with verve, intelligence and insight, and while
bringing to life the world in which he lived with care and
subtlety. This is a biography that leaves you with a fresh
impression of both Turner and his time. It frees its subjects from
myth, and imbues them with the quality of wonder.”— Matthew
Adams, I News
“Franny Moyle tells a compelling story of a self–taught prodigy...
A restless painter who always sought new forms of expression in
watercolour and oils. Moyle is an unpretentious art historian, and
she has written an inviting and easily digested biography of the
best of British painters.”– Stephen Fay, Economist
“Moyle's art-historical perceptions make this detailed and
beautifully balanced biography a compelling read... Turner emerges
from it larger... revealed as a man of his moment.”— Brian
Morton, Scottish Herald
“Miss Moyle tells a very good story. She is sound on the art
without allowing art historicism to weigh her down. She is also
excellent on the complicated politics of the Royal Academy. We get
a feel for the man in all his cantankerousness and eccentricity,
but she also brings out the humour and —at least after he had made
his own fortune—the generosity, especially towards his fellow
artists.”—Country Life
“Detailed and persuasive.”—Andrew Marr, BBC Radio 4 Start the
Week
“Moyle is good on Turner’s momentous times, interweaving history,
the history of art and the public’s attitude toward art.”— Sunday
Telegraph
“A biographical must-read… The words on the page offer views every
bit as captivating as Turner’s ageless panoramas.”—Summer Read, Big
Issue
“Moyle is excellent at establishing these stylistic contexts. ...
her art-historical perceptions are what make this detailed and
beautifully balanced biography so compelling a read. It's rare that
one finishes a modern biography feeling that the subject has been
enhanced and not merely dissected. McKern and Spall can step aside.
The real Turner is onstage.”—Herald
“In rip-roaring style… [His life provided] rich pickings for any
biographer, and Moyle gives them the drama they deserve. Moyle is
consistently perceptive about Turner’s work. Her narrative is as
colourful as it is pacy.”—John Preston, Daily Mail
“What Ruskin misses, but Moyle writes about so persuasively, is
Turner's ambition.”—Four star review, Laura Freeman, Mail on
Sunday
“Like all good storytellers, Moyle begins with high drama… a
popular rather than scholarly work… the author enlivens her tale
with perfect details… [an] excellent biography.”--Kirkus
(starred)
“Franny Moyle’s biography…is a fat, satisfying popular
history of the man who was arguably Britain’s greatest painter. Ms.
Moyle has not written academic art history; she is entertaining on
Turner’s life and good on his times.” —The Economist
“Fresh and lively… Turner’s life is given a vivid colour and depth
as Moyle deftly interweaves his professional career with his
private life. Moyle writes with sensitivity about individual
pictures and series, and is good at explaining the context.” —BBC
History Magazine
“Moyle’s [book] is… satisfying, not least because it allows for the
intimacy of reading. Less is more when it comes to biography – and
Moyle gives Turner’s restless life a perspective and a frame.” —The
New Statesman
“Franny Moyle’s biography…is a fat, satisfying popular history of
the man who was arguably Britain’s greatest painter. Ms. Moyle has
not written academic art history; she is entertaining on Turner’s
life and good on his times.” —The Economist
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