JMW Turner's most misunderstood painting

By: Matt Wilson/BBC
Translation: Telegrafi.com

Temeraire's last voyage [The Fighting Temeraire] by JMW Turner, became a national symbol from its first showing in 1839, and its fame has endured to this day. It was once voted Britain's favourite painting and is now featured on the £20 note. But the widespread interpretation of the message of this iconic painting may actually be at odds with Turner's true intentions.

The “Temeraire” mentioned in the title refers to a 98-gun British warship that appears in the background of the painting. She was a heroine in Britain’s defense against France during the Napoleonic Wars, but came to public attention in 1838 when she was dismantled and her parts sold. Turner’s painting depicts this once-mighty gladiator of the seas being towed along the River Thames by a steam tugboat – a relatively new invention of the time.

Read also:

- The color that symbolizes both life and death
- Art history, through seven colors
- A fascinating mirage: Monet's paintings changed the way we see London

A short segment in the 2012 James Bond film, Skyfall [Skyfall], captures the popular perception of the painting. In the scene, Bond (Daniel Craig) meets Q (Ben Whishaw), his new head of research and development, at London's National Gallery, and they sit across from each other. Temeraire's last voyage. “It always makes me feel a little sad,” says young technologist Q, deliberately poking fun at 007 as an old field agent. “A magnificent warship being shamefully scrapped.”

This reflects the widespread belief that the painting evokes a sense of nostalgia and faded national glory. According to this interpretation, Fearlessness The ghost is the heroine of the painting, while the tugboat is the “enemy.” In the 19th century, the English writer William Makepeace Thackeray called the tugboat “a small, malicious, and devilish steamer,” while the American novelist Herman Melville described it as “a dwarf steamer” compared to the “Titan Temeraire.”

It is understandable why the public of Turner's time might have had sympathy for His/Her Majesty's Ship [HMS] Temeraire who was humbled and felt sad about her fate. In 1804, she had played a crucial role in the blockade of French ports and the defense of the British coast. But her most glorious moment occurred on the afternoon of October 21, 1805, in the Atlantic Ocean, off the southwest coast of Spain.

At this crucial moment, the Battle of Trafalgar – a bloody naval battle between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of Spain and France – reached its climax. Admiral Lord Nelson's flagship, Victoria [HMS Victory], had led the attack, but was being bombarded by the French ship Redoubtable [Redoubtable]. Then, through the smoke of the cannons, came out Fearlessness, pursued by a war-hungry British fleet. Fearlessness bombed Redubtible with her artillery and faced a fierce barrage of cannon fire in response – an attack that pierced the ship and covered the decks in blood. But, like a steadfast warrior, Fearlessness She bravely defended her flagship and played a decisive role in the final victory of the British navy at the Battle of Trafalgar.

Turner was 64 years old when he painted Temeraire's last voyage. He was born in 1775, in a poor neighborhood near Covent Garden in London, but managed to enroll in the Royal Academy of Arts at the age of 14. He became an academic painter at the young age of 24 and professor of perspective when he was only 32. However, despite associating with great and important people, he never agreed to soften his cockney accent or improve his manners. He was also an extraordinary entrepreneur – he opened his own private gallery, sought the support of wealthy patrons and was always on the lookout for attractive artistic and profitable projects that could attract widespread attention. In one respect, Temeraire's last voyage fulfills his desire for widespread popularity by exploiting the public's sense of national pride.

But there's an even more important message to be gleaned from this painting than patriotism and empathy. It has to do with the much-talked-about tugboat: the true focal point of the work.

Steam power was the new mechanical marvel of Turner's time, and his attitude towards this new technology was much more complex than Thackeray, Melville, or Q perceived. In Turner's other works, such as Snowstorm – steamship [Snow Storm – Steam-Boat, 1842] and Rain, steam and speed [Rain, Steam and Speed, 1844], his fascination with modern machinery and its transformative impact on individual experience, the environment and society as a whole is evident. This stands in stark contrast to his great rival, John Constable, whose parents came from the elite and whose paintings generally overlooked the major changes that were transforming the British Isles at the time.

In Constable's iconic painting of 1821, Hay cart [The Hay Wain], an archaic carriage gently moves away from the viewer towards a pastoral English landscape. While in Temeraire's last voyage Turner, we are faced with an inevitable collision with the unstoppable force of industry.

This reflected the reality of the time. When it was painted Temeraire's last voyage, the Royal Navy was increasingly using steamships to tow larger ships. Steps were already being taken to replace the sailing fleet with new steam frigates. But, by the end of Temeraire It was not just an ordinary improvement in armaments. It was a unique revolution in navigation. For thousands of years, sailors had relied on the wind and the oars to navigate. Now, steam engines gave them the ability to overcome the vagaries of the wind, shallow channels, and tidal rhythms—in essence, to outdo nature itself. The future would be powered by steam, but no one in the 30s could have predicted exactly how this would affect the future of shipping, commerce, and naval warfare. What Turner knew for sure was that, from An odyssey Since Homer, sailing has functioned as a profound symbol of life's journey in art and literature. And so, by memorably uniting the old with the new in his painting, he presents us with a powerful metamorphosis – the beginning of a new post-industrial cycle in human history.

Turner was aware of the responsibility of artists in times of irreversible historical change. For him, the old craft of depicting wooden ships, with their sails, rigging and carved decorations, was becoming obsolete. He understood that the challenge for every artist (and for every member of society), in the modern era, was to discover beauty and meaning in the new – and in objects that had not previously been part of art, such as iron chimneys, pistons, valves and floating wheels. In Temeraire's last voyage, his rise to this challenge is encapsulated in a truly unforgettable and uncompromising symbol.

Turner even adapted his painting technique to express the technological and social transformations that were taking place in the world around him. In Temeraire's last voyage he used newly invented colors, such as lemon yellow and scarlet lake. Analysis of the pigments used in the painting also shows that he included ingredients from his kitchen to give the colors special effects – such as animal fat, cooking oil, and even salad oil.

His interest in new technology and his search for innovative techniques to represent it directly influenced the next generation of avant-garde painters. Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro were fascinated by Turner's art. An engraving of his painting, Rain, steam and speed (which depicts a train gliding over Middenhead Bridge) was even displayed at the First Impressionist Exhibition in Paris, in 1874 – a key event in the history of modern art.

Various exhibitions will be held in 2025 to mark the 250th anniversary of Turner's birth. But to fully appreciate this extraordinary artist, it is important to understand the true meaning of his masterpiece, Temeraire's last voyage.

It has often been interpreted as a melancholic image, a sorrowful lament for past glories and a lost way of life. But this interpretation misses the essence of the work. Temeraire's last voyage it is really about transformation and the inevitability of change, not nostalgia. The most important lessons to be learned from this work have to do with Turner's attitude and perspective. It embodies his refusal to be intimidated by novelty or enslaved by traditional artistic values. His quest to discover the beauty and grandeur of modern experience, and to leave the past behind, is magnificently expressed in Temeraire's last voyageAnd, these qualities are, in fact, his most lasting legacy to modern art.