Turner gallery revisited - Part 3 - Sea Power

Note: This blog is a continuation of my visit to the Turner gallery on the 26th of July.

• Part 1 - The Main Room
• Part 2 - Turner and his critics

This room in the gallery is devoted to the sea (and Britain's identity as an island, and its quondam unrivalled maritime power, especially around the Napoleonic era). 

It has only 2 paintings which I hadn't covered before: Turner's Seascapes.

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Spithead: Two Captured Danish Ships Entering Portsmouth Harbour

This was painted by Turner - following Napoleon's blockade - when he witnessed Danish ships arrive off the English coast.

I love the way Turner can paint a ship (the majesty of his ship's mast and rudder etc.); and I also like the way he can capture the power of the choppy sea with its billowing, surging, and undulating mass of water and its interaction with the violent wind. Then, he manages to paint vulnerability and human fragility of the victims of the sea's power.

I do love examining some of the details:

The facial anxiety, people gripping the boats, someone navigating the rudder, the wave's crescendo towering just over the uppermost edge etc.

The force of the wind against the sail driving it forward crashing through the waves and the sea's merciless severity.

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The Battle of Trafalgar, as seen from the Mizen Starboard Shrouds of the Victory

This epic captures the Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805).

The eye doesn't know where to settle here. If you click the above painting, blogger expands the view. A panorama of widespread destruction and catastrophe. Billowing gunpowder charcoal smoke obnubilating our perception of the true reality. The warfare seems to have ended. Soldiers on the deck. 

The majesty of the ship is centre-most. The mast upright, powerful, and steely. Rising supremely from the keel to seize and control the awesome power of the wind. The mainmast's flickering sail seems to dance in the wind. Although the French flag is dragged down and lowered (lower left); true victory pertains to the ocean and our maritime mastery.

As the Tate said, "celebration of victory over the French and Spanish navies mixed with grief over the death of naval hero Nelson."

Pretty amazing painting.