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 The Fighting Temeraire, Arth from the Lake of Zug, and Lausanne. This beautiful sea piece, titled A Ship Aground, is essentially Turner, the result of personal observation. It was painted after he had freed himself from the desire to rival and outvie his predecessors, and before he became obssessed by the passion to paint pure sunlight. A Ship Aground is a pendant to his painting The Old Chain Pier, Brighton.