William Turner, a dark complex man, was born into a family that had increasing mental illnesses. Death occupied his family and consumed his sister after she was assigned to a mental institute. Turner lived with his uncle because of these increasing family problems. His love for painting and drawing emerged a few years after he moved in with his new guardian. The Royal Academy of Art schools soon recognized Turner's skill and accepted him into the school. During his early years of painting, Turner developed a love for marine life. This was not a love for the beauty of nature brings, but instead for the destruction that it creates.

In 1831 Turner painted Lifeboat and Manby Apparatus Going off to a Stranded Vessel Making Signal of Distress. This work perfectly displays the darkness that nature can bring upon mankind. A blue flair in the background can be seen as the violent waves rip through the vessel that was in despair. Bone-chilling clouds in the background overpower the light that the painting emits. Although Lifeboat and Manby Apparatus Going off to a Stranded Vessel Making Signal of Distress was an extremely dark painting, not all of his were like this. Many of his works provided a great source of pure light that bordered destruction and darkness, mostly in nature.