( click to enlarge) The Fighting Temeraire tugged to her last Berth to be broken up
JMW Turner (1838)
Every time I go up to 'that there London' I feel a pull towards the National Gallery and to this painting in particular, it is just simply stunning and I can spend unremarked time standing in front of it.
The way it evokes the passing of an age is brilliantly executed , the old (sail) being taken away by the new (steam) with the setting sun glowing in the background.
Yet to me, it doesn't look like the ship is being 'taken' merely following behind, like an old war horse who knows it's time has come to be put out to grass.
The way Turner has the Temeraire almost ghost like looming behind the steam tug as a reminder perhaps of glories past, but I think more to remind the viewer of the foundation on which the present has been build by those that went before.
.The way it evokes the passing of an age is brilliantly executed , the old (sail) being taken away by the new (steam) with the setting sun glowing in the background.
Yet to me, it doesn't look like the ship is being 'taken' merely following behind, like an old war horse who knows it's time has come to be put out to grass.
The way Turner has the Temeraire almost ghost like looming behind the steam tug as a reminder perhaps of glories past, but I think more to remind the viewer of the foundation on which the present has been build by those that went before.
Edit: 09:10
I should add that another of the reasons I love this painting is that I own it, well not just me, you do too ( if you're British ) It's not from The Queen's Collection or on loan from Lord Huffington Smythe.
It was bequeathed by Mr Turner to the nation (that's you and me that is) when he died in 1851, which was very nice of him. However unlike other bits of communal property, like the school hamster, they don't let you take it home weekends, not even if you ask nicely. I know, I tried, they were quite right too, I'd have nowhere to hang it.
.
I should add that another of the reasons I love this painting is that I own it, well not just me, you do too ( if you're British ) It's not from The Queen's Collection or on loan from Lord Huffington Smythe.
It was bequeathed by Mr Turner to the nation (that's you and me that is) when he died in 1851, which was very nice of him. However unlike other bits of communal property, like the school hamster, they don't let you take it home weekends, not even if you ask nicely. I know, I tried, they were quite right too, I'd have nowhere to hang it.
.
It's the play of the light, isn't it? Turner always got that just spot on...
ReplyDeleteYou shouldn't even THINK about hanging the school hamster.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes; you can smell that warm, maritime air as dusk falls.
Julia, there's a great bit in one of Spike Milligans war autobiographies.
ReplyDeleteSpike is having an argument with his officer (who was an artist and Fellow of the Royal Society)about Turner, Spike enthuses that Turner was a fraud and you "never see sunsets like that"
"Ah" replies the officer "but don't you wish you did"
Quite
North, hanging would have been the least of it's worries with some of the people I went to school with (sellotape).
ReplyDeleteI must confess however I went to a Public School, we had a baby unicorn that gave out wishes.