But I know what I like and I like this.
Click for larger
The Fighting Temeraire
1839. Joseph Mallord William Turner
I was going to save this one for later, but with the 70th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain it seems rather apt.
The Temeraire, another one of the few, part of the wooden wall that stood and ‘held the line’ when we once again stood alone faced by invasion is being towed to it’s last rest.
If the National Gallery were on fire this would be the painting that I would run in and grab.
To me there is everything in this painting; The sadness at the passing of an old warrior to which we owe much, the memory of the history along with gratitude, the transfer of the Old to the New (sail being towed by steam).
All with a magnificent ‘Turner’ sunset.*
I could write for ages about this painting and how it affects me, but I shan’t, this is blog after all.
*Apropos of nothing, I am always reminded with this painting, of a passage in one of Spike Milligan's memoirs. ( I think it’s ‘Mussolini, His Part In My Down Fall’ but they are in storage still, so I can’t confirm it)
Spike is out driving an officer in a jeep, who is also a Fellow of the Royal Academy. The talk turns to art and in a discussion about Turner, Spike being Spike exclaims.
“Turner’s sunsets are rubbish, nobody ever saw a sunset like that.”
To which the officer responds.
“Yes, but don’t you wish you did?”
Nuff said.
.
Oh, yes! This is one of my favourites.
ReplyDeleteI do believe that this little antipodean has actually seen this one in the Nasho.
ReplyDeleteOh you have no idea. A little artist will, hopefully, emerge.
ReplyDeletePS I was describing this great work to a young man today. He has a great eye,no technique, though the idea is flowering. Thanks PC.
ReplyDeleteYou always get the feeling with Milligan's war memoirs that they are more docudrama than documentary, that he was apt to drop in things he would have said if he'd thought of them at the time. Though of course he always denied this indignantly.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favourite quotes was where the hated major was in the habit of assembling the men in the desert and delivering "improving lectures" to them. One such was, according to Milligna, introduced by the sergeant as:
"The major will now address you on the subject of Keats. And I don't suppose none of you higgerant buggers knows what a Keat is."