His face is on Britains 20 note. His name is attached to one of the worlds most famous art prizes. Hes been the subject of a biopic by famed film director Mike Leigh. And now artist JMW Turner will be honored with a yearlong festival taking place throughout 2025, marking the 250th birthday of the artist, born on April 23, 1775, and now one of the best known and most loved artists in British history. The cities of London, Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, Norwich, Bath, and Sussex will all host exhibitions. Books, films, and digital content galore will be presented: Tates website will feature a complete catalogue of Turners 37,500 sketches and watercolors while the museum hosts Turner and Constable later this year; the BBC will release a documentary; and Leighs 2014 biopic, Mr. Turner, will be screened at BFI Southbank. Scholars will line up for two big events: an international conference at Tate Britain and a summit at Turner Contemporary on arts connection to nature. Turner is a standout figure in the story of British creativity, said Maria Balshaw, Tates director, in press materials. It is Tates privilege to care for the worlds biggest collection of his art and showcase it to the widest possible public. Over the course of this year, Im delighted that we will be showing over 150 of his stunning works at Tate Britain as well as lending over 100 more to venues right across this country and beyond. Events will stretch across the oceans as well, including the U.S. The Yale Center for British Art has a major Turner exhibition in the works at its New Haven, Conn., home; in Ohio, the Taft Museum of Art and the Cincinnati Art Museum are cooking up a show of the masters watercolors; and in Shanghai theres Dialogues With Turner: Evoking the Sublime, organized by Tate in collaboration with the Museum of Art Pudong. Born to a family of butchers, shopkeepers, and barbers, Turner saw his mother committed to Bethlem Royal Hospital for mental illness, but his father encouraged his artistic efforts by displaying his art in his barbershop. He quickly excelled at art school, starting at 14, and began exhibiting watercolors at the Royal Academy while just a teenager. In 1802, a group of noblemen sponsored the artists first trip abroad, during which he studied Old Masters at the Louvre in Paris and witnessed the landscapes of the Swiss Alps. Elected a Royal Academician in 1802, Turner opened a commercial gallery two years later to display his own work, attracting patronage from noblemen. He traveled Britain widely, painting various views that were adapted into popular prints. Member of Parliament Walter Fawkes and Sir John Leicester mounted exhibitions of their collections of his work in their homes, augmenting Turners regular Royal Academy exhibitions and his self-organized shows. Turner received his first royal commission, to paint the Battle of Trafalgar, in 1822; it was criticized both for its non-chronological approach to the subject and its allusion to lives lost. A forerunner of Impressionism, Turner in his late years painted highly atmospheric depictions, which led critics to mock them by comparing them to soap suds and whitewash, though he was prominently defended by well-known critic John Ruskin. He achieved career highs late in life, being elected acting president of the Royal Academy in 1845, and seeing a painting hung in the National Gallery in London. He died from cholera in 1851, leaving nearly 300 oil paintings and about 30,000 sketches and watercolors to the nation.