William Ralph Turner

Who was William Ralph Turner?

William Ralph Turner was a painter from Manchester.

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. Well known in art circles in the North West. He was discovered by Peter Burdett in the 1970s. Peter commissioned him to paint Lyon in France. He continued to find fame,recognition and some fortune in the 1980s when he had exhibitions in Windsor and Eton. He was re 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.

Parkinson's Disease eventually forced Turner to stop painting.