Is Turner’s famous painting of the heroic warship a vision of loss or hope?
I recently watched a recording of one of the programs from the TV series Great Paintings of the World, presented by Andrew Marr and screened on Channel 5 in the summer. Episode 3 featured The Fighting Temeraire Tugged to Her Last Berth to Be Broken Up, 1838 by JMW Turner. Painted in 1839, it depicts the heroic warship from the Battle of Trafalgar on its last journey down the Thames. The work is a stunning waterscape in Turner’s characteristic expressionistic style. His use of loose brushstrokes, thick impasto paint and thin layered glazes, evoke atmospheric impressions of a vast sky and its reflection in the still water. This contrasts with the depiction of the ship and tugboat, which are more detailed and sharply defined. It is the juxtaposition of the grand old ship and the small puffing steamboat that has given rise to many differing views of what the painting is really about. Is it a tragic work about loss and the end of an era, or can it be considered in a more positive light?
The work hangs in the National Gallery in London, the place where it was first exhibited. In her description of the work which appears in the Gallery’s Companion Guide, Erika Langmuir informs us that Turner had encountered the ship when out on the Thames but that he manipulated the image to suit his purpose, which was to symbolise the decline of a ‘heroic and graceful age’ by the advent of ‘a petty age of steam and money’. [1]Llangmuir, 1997, p. 340 The ‘squat black tug, belching fire and soot’ is an indication of Turner’s negativity towards the Industrial revolution which he ‘seemed to deplore’. [2]Ibid., p. 340 She muses on the metaphorical meanings of the dying sun and rising pale moon and how the breaking up of the ship reflects that of human life. [3]Ibid.
The views expressed by Marr and contributing historians in the TV program are rather more nuanced. We are told that if Turner did see the ship making the journey down the Thames it would not have appeared anything like it does in his painting. With much of it already salvaged for reuse, it would have been an empty, black and rotting hulk (the ship was black and yellow) without its masts. Turner’s depiction was not so much a manipulation as a complete reimagining, but one steeped in nostalgia. In his stately portrayal of the ship, he reminds viewers of Britain’s maritime triumphs of the past. However, the spectral quality of the vessel juxtaposed with the image of a setting sun – depicted misplaced in the East – can be seen as a poignant indication of the end of an era. However, the program contributors suggest this image need not be steeped in sadness, as conversely, the tug could be considered as a more forward-looking symbol, suggesting the old giving way to the new. It is beautifully painted and with its billowing smoke could be viewed as heralding the new industrial Victorian era.
So, how did Turner feel about the modern industrial era? Writing in Tate etc, the historian Jenny Uglow says that far from deploring the new age of steam, Turner was actively engaged with science, absorbing all the latest knowledge, and how ‘…his excitement at modernity – the new technology, the discoveries of science, the wonders of industry – also poured into his art…’. [4]Uglow, 2020, p. 55 His paintings show his response to the world around him, the good and the bad and include social, political and industrial changes. In The Fighting Temeraire, Uglow suggests that by misplacing the sunset downriver in the East, Turner indicates the dawn of a new age; and how the juxtaposition of the ghostly ship and fiery tug, could be seen as ‘a moment of handover, of balance’. [5]Ibid., p. 61
Turner was highly ambitious and chose a subject that he knew would be popular with the public of the time. He created a beautiful thought-provoking painting that evoked both the past and the future. Personally, I think the perceived sunset could equally be a sunrise and therefore in the correct position. Perhaps Turner was just doing what he loved best, depicting a maritime scene whilst playing with light to create an atmospheric sky with a colourful sunset… or sunrise.
Notes
MEDIA SOURCES
Great Paintings of the World (2020) Channel 5, first broadcast 20th June.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Langmuir, E., (1997) The National Gallery Companion Guide, Revised Edition, National Gallery Company Limited, London, pp. 339-340.
Uglow, J., (2020) ‘Turner’s Modern World’ in Tate Etc. Autumn 2020, Issue 50, pp. 52-62.