JMW Turner at the National Gallery

Below is a write-up of paintings of Turner’s at the National Gallery. 

If asked about my desert island paintings — Turner would be included. I really love his work, and he’s so important in the history of art. 

Why? Because the sublime 19th century romantic landscapes have the psychological depth and emotion that leave you with a sense of awe. Nature on a grand scale — massive skies, crashing waters, etc., and the sublime.

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The Fighting Temeraire

A beautiful & moving elegy. Slightly mournful but leavened with glory. Turner’s sunsets are so intense. 

A grand old navy sail-ship being scuttled by the new steam-age. The steam-propelled tug tows the old “Temeraire” up the River Thames to a ship-breaker’s yard in Rotherhithe, South London. There is also a white flag on the mast of the tug. 

This painting depicts the final journey of the “Temeraire”, a famous warship sold by the Royal Navy in 1838. So, this was a real ship but probably not as Turner depicted it. The “Fighting” probably refers to her combat in the Napoleonic Wars and at the Battle of Trafalgar. Like us, in our obsolescence, when we too get old and are scuttled off.

Turner wonderfully contrasts the veteran ship against the blissful & radiant setting sun. Water seems to have no life other than to emphasis the sky, clouds, and smoke. Reflections in the water slow down the energy of the painting. The “Temeraire” also seems ghostly and ethereal while the tug boat is dark and powerful.

The sunset is on the same horizontal level as the Temeraire suggesting an approximation — and slightly obscured by the thick orange-smoke of that tugboat.

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Sun Rising through Vapour

Idyllic, charming.

A warm, reposeful and quiet afternoon by the coast for a fishing community at the fore. 

The calm is accentuated by the stillness of the sea.

Fish on the floor, a man pulling up his trousers.

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Dido building Carthage

Queen Dido, the founder of Carthage, is on the left. She was a Carthaginian founding myth, an equivalent to Remus and Romulus. She is depicted examining the classical architecture of her city. 

In Turner’s “The Decline of the Carthaginian Empire” at the Tate, we see this same painting (I think) after its construction, and its sun no longer in the ascendent. 

Queen Dido.

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Ulysses deriding Polyphemus — Homer’s Odyssey

From Homer’s Odyssey with yet another motif of blazing sunrise/sunset.

Polyphemus is supposed to be in the mountains on the left and blinded by the light. He is the one-eyed giant son of Poseidon in Greek mythology and prevents Ulysses & his crew from returning home after the Trojan war.

I think it’s a striking and powerful visual masterpiece.

Beautiful ship with lots of sailors,
and transparent sea nymphs swimming at the front of the ship.

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Rain, Steam and Speed - The Great Western Railway

Wow. Love it.

This painting incredibly captures the spirit of change and modernism. The Steam Engine advancing across a bridge ploughing through the fog and rain — like the Industrial Revolution when railroads transformed the countryside.

Turner captures a beautiful mifty & foggy atmosphere in his paint. The landscape is bathed in a golden aureate, diffused light.

The locomotive is large, dark, unnatural in form, and even frightful in appearance. The modern railroad iron contrasts with the historic traditional bridge in the background from a different epoch. Like all sublime Romantic landscapes, it depicts nature as terrifying as well as beautiful. 

Up close, it feels like impressionism.

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Dutch Boats in a Gale

So captivating. 

Turner’s seascapes draw you into the heroic & marvelous.

The stormy weather is given an awesome force, and I love the rage in the waves — in their undulation and white crashing foam on the surface.

The enveloping storm clouds add to the foreboding scene.

An old man hanging on ...

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Postscript: Interesting article on “The Fighting Temeraire”: