ANTWERP HARBOUR

William Ralph Turner was born in Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester in 1920. He has become known as one of the last great living Northern English industrial artists. He is certainly one of the last who knew and was influenced by L.S. Lowry. For about 60 years Turner painted the North West and surrounding areas, often from memories and images obtained while indulging his passion for cycling long distances. A prolific painter, he painted thousands of pictures, including several hundred that featured the Stockport Viaduct. Although well known in art circles in the North West, he did not find fame, recognition and some fortune until he was discovered by David Gunning, an art dealer from Todmorden, in 2000, when Turner was 80. Over the next five years Gunning sold as many as 3000 Turner paintings, starting a process by which interest in and prices for his work began to rise dramatically. Now suffering from Parkinsons Disease, he has had to stop painting. A major exhibition of Turners work took place at Clark Art in Hale, Cheshire, in 2010.