The Fighting Termeraire, J.M. W. Turner, 1775-1851

The Fighting Temeraire, tugged to her last berth to be broken up, 1838

Joseph Mallord William Turner, 1775-1851

Claude Debussy called Turner “the finest creator of mystery in the whole of art” – generous praise from a composer who himself might have deserved such a title. However, Turner is indeed a fine creator of mystery as we can see in his painting, “ The Fighting Temeraire”. The painting depicts a wreck being towed to its final grave, but Turner makes it beautiful and profound through his composition of the piece, his startling use of colour and his evocation of the symbolic importance of the transition from the age of sail to the age of industry.

“The Fighting Temeraire” has remained one of the best loved pictures by a 19th Century British Artist. Turner called this painting his ‘darling’, and it is a verdict that the British public has, for over a century and a half resoundly endorsed. It transforms the actual event of the ship’s being towed to being broken up into supreme poetic fiction .

War at sea had dominated the years in which Turner made a name for himself as an artist. He was 1

It has been supposed by some art critics that, like Napoleon, and like, ‘The Angel in the Sun’, the Temeraire is an image of old age and death, while claiming for himself a heroic past. Turner called this work his, ‘darling’ a fact which reinforces an intuitive sense that the subject had some such meaning for him; though the sheer beauty of the image it presents would have been enough to explain his fondness for it.

“Of the pictures most contemporary critics, Thackeray, most openly affirms that the painting strikes a powerfully patriotic cord. It is absurd; you will say…to grow so politically enthusiastic about a four foot canvas, representing a ship, a steamer, a river, and a sunset. But, herein lies the power of the great artist. He makes you see and think of a great deal more than the objects before you”. “The force of feeling which Turner poured into the Fighting Temeraire is abundantly evident. Fighting as an accolade for the Temeraire seems to have been Turner’s own invention, but would have made immediate sense to anyone who recalled the part the Temeraire had played at Trafalgar, “She came to nelson’s aid/The battl’s brunt to bear”, in the words of a popular song inspired by the picture’. It is as grand a painting as ever figured on the walls of any academy, or came from the easel of any painter”. Blackwood’s Magazine said; “it is very beautiful – a very poetical conception; here is genius”.

J.M. W. Turner achieved the most radical pictorial vision of any Romantic artist. Beginning with landscapes reminiscent of the 17th –century French painter Claude Lorrain, he became, in such later works as, ‘Snow Storm: Steam Boat Off a Harbour’s Mouth’, (1842), almost entirely concerned with atmospheric effects of light and colour, mixing clouds, mist, snow, and sea into a vortex in which all distinct objects are dissolved.

Some topics in this essay:
Blackwood’s Magazine, RC Leslie, Turner Temeraire”, Sara Booth, Italian Rhythm, Turner Monet, Royal Navy, Victoria’s Coronation, Ruskin Turner, John Walker, turner’s genius, turner’s paintings, picture turner painted, turner “the, temeraire tried, romantic artist, creator mystery, father son, clouds mist, magnificent sunset, perfect picture turner, ‘change continuity adaptability’, continuity adaptability’,