The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., is showing exemplary exhibitions that probe the work and lives of Edward Hopper and J.M.W. Turner. These outstanding shows, selected from bodies of work that encompass six decades each, continue into January.

"Edward Hopper" comprises 48 oil paintings, 34 watercolors and 12 prints by the acclaimed painter of American isolation and interiority, including such iconic works as "Nighthawks."

"J.M.W. Turner" is the most comprehensive treatment of the famed British landscape artist to be presented in the United States Among its 146 oils and works on paper are 85 from the Tate Britain's impressive collection of his work, much of it bequeathed by Turner.

One would expect Turner (1775-1851) and Hopper (1882-1967) to be disparate, separated by an ocean and life spans lived a century apart. However, they had in common a drive to find the compelling in ordinary life, and for each, light was as much about presence -- physical or metaphysical -- as about formal considerations. Gallery text that describes Turner's later seascapes as having a "brooding, introspective quality" could apply to the lighthouses and other buildings of Hopper's coastal residencies.

But the most significant trait they share -- and what solidifies their appeal to contemporary audiences -- is that of maverick, each following an intense personal vision, often in headstrong opposition to prevailing tastes.

J.M.W. Turner

Joseph Mallord William Turner is remembered for tempestuous skies and seas, and luminous shimmering atmospheric effects, executed in animated brush strokes, particularly in late paintings which approached pure abstraction.

However, he was also a master of printmaking and draftsmanship and watercolor and oil technique, as illustrated by efforts as varied as his "Liber Studiorum" (Book of Studies) engravings or pastoral paintings reminiscent of Nicolas Poussin or Claude Lorrain.

Born in Covent Garden, London, the son of a barber, Turner enrolled in the school of the prestigious and autocratic Royal Academy of Arts when he was 14. He exhibited his first painting, a watercolor, a year later in the 1790 annual exhibition; was elected a full Royal Academician at age 26, the youngest member ever admitted; and five years later was named professor of perspective.

Ambitious and considered unpolished by high society, he nonetheless developed prominent patrons.

The exhibition is organized in 10 thematic sections that explore Turner's career and the visual means he employed to elevate landscape as painting subject.

Included are tour de force works like "Snow Storm: Hannibal and His Army Crossing the Alps," wherein Turner enlists the sublime for effect. Or the monumental "The Battle of Trafalgar, 21 October 1805" at sea, his only royal commission and, at 102 by 144 inches, his largest work.

As impressive as those are, the visionary work done at the end of his life is what elicits gasps, as much for its purity as for its expressiveness. Combined with the rest of his oeuvre, it's what ensures Turner's place at the top of the historical canon.

Edward Hopper

Where Turner's passion is inflamed, bombastic and outward, Hopper's is of a different nature, the coals within his signature lone figures glowing quietly somewhere between expiration and eruption.

Born in Nyack, N.Y, Hopper studied under Ashcan School great Robert Henri at the New York School of Art. Afterward, he traveled in Europe, where the Impressionists' concern with light and fin-de-siecle subject matter supplemented the influence of Henri's gritty urban realism. Movies also played a prominent role in Hopper's aesthetic.

Early on, he earned a living as a commercial illustrator, eventually supplanting that by printmaking, an endeavor that allowed him to grow an audience and to develop his lifelong themes.

In 1913, Hopper moved into Greenwich Village, where he would live throughout his life. Many of the images for which he became famous -- of vernacular architecture, cafes or scenes through windows -- were found within blocks of his home.

Hopper was also known for coastal subjects, and his 1923 paintings of Victorian homes in Gloucester, Mass., brought his first commercial painting success. Previous to his 41st year, Hopper had sold only one painting.

One of his last paintings, "Sun in an Empty Room (no. 3)" of 1963, shows a room bare save for golden rectangular areas lit by the sun through an open window. Outside verdant green foliage suggests rebirth. It appears to be a reversal of previously depicted windows, through which breezes enter and out of which physical bodies stare, their musings held private. Here the absent body has exited, perhaps through the window, not to walk heavily within the shadows of the past but to merge with the airy light before it vanishes at the end of another day.

Hopper and Turner devoted their lives to substantiating the ineffable. Their works that most successfully achieve that goal suspend the viewer in engagement -- straining to reach beyond the commonplace, to transcend.

"Hopper" is organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where it debuted; the National Gallery; and The Art Institute of Chicago. "Turner" is organized, in association with Tate Britain, London, by the National Gallery, where it makes its debut; and by the Dallas Museum of Art and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.