Joseph Mallord William Turner (1785-1851) was a British Romantic, landscape painter, water colorist, and printmaker. It is said that his style lay the foundation for the movement known as Impressionism. His paintings number in the thousands. Among his best-known works are A Ship Aground, The Fighting Temeraire, Arth from the Lake of Zug, and Lausanne. This painting, is titled Venice: Grand Canal (Sunset). It is a twilight impression of the Grand Canal and is one of the 20 Venice water-colors catalogued and described by Ruskin, and arranged by him for exhibition in the rooms on the ground floor of the National gallery. "Turner's entirely final manner" he calls it. "A noble sketch; injured by some change which has taken place in the coarse dark touches on the extreme left.".