“I have no secret but hard work,” J. M. W. Turner once said. “This is a secret that many never learn, and they don’t succeed because they don’t learn it. Labor is the genius that changes the world from ugliness to beauty, and the great curse to a great blessing.” The most celebrated British landscape painter in history was born 250 years ago, in 1775. Turner worked relentlessly, first mastering the English topographical tradition before turning his eye to nature’s magnificent plays of color and light. How does the sun hit a wave? Why do clouds turn translucent in the night air? This exhibition presents Turners from the museum’s collection—the largest holding of British art outside the U.K.—each work offering its own answer to those questions of perception. What better way to celebrate the re-opening, after a two-year closure for conservation purposes, of the Yale Center for British Art? —Elena Clavarino