Blizzard, 91.5x122 cm, 1842, Tate Gallery, London. William Turner (1775-1857) was Britain's most outstanding 19th-century painter and a pioneer of Western modernism before French Impressionism. He loved nature early on, traveling through Britain, France, and Italy to seek new possibilities in landscape painting (early works were mainly skilled watercolors; he began oil painting from 1794). Early on, he was deeply influenced by Northern and French landscape painters like Claude Lorrain, with themes centered on natural scenery. From 1819 to 1840, he traveled to Italy multiple times; each trip profoundly affected him, especially after the 1840s when his art underwent true innovation, beginning to dissolve nature into storms, rain, and light, thereby deconstructing natural forms as seen in Blizzard (1842), Rain, Steam and Speed (1844), and The Morning of Norham Castle (c. 1845). Thus, Turner’s exploration of nature’s atmosphere, depiction of light, and unique colors clearly paved the way for Impressionism and modern painting.

In this bewildering blizzard, a magnificent vortex storm sweeps across the harbor, with dark clouds and crashing waves creating a dramatic atmosphere that forms an extraordinary landscape painting. Through rough brushstrokes, emotional colors, and indistinct forms, it approaches non-figurative or more precisely abstract viewpoints, presenting nature’s most incredible energy and atmosphere, revolutionizing the framework of Western landscape painting. To people at the time, it was unimaginable, sparking debate and criticism; some claimed the painter used kitchen colors (i.e., egg, butter, chocolate) to create the picture. Others, no exception, felt it contained nothing but a pile of laundry powder and plaster. With Romantic passion overflowing, Turner attempted to capture the spirits of nature—its atmosphere and light—pointing a path toward modern painting for the next generation of artists. Before his death, he said, "The Sun is God."