Fishermen at Sea, sometimes known as the Cholmeley Sea Piece, is an early oil painting by English artist J. M. W. Turner. It was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1796 and has been owned by the Tate Gallery since 1972. It was the first oil painting by Turner to be exhibited at the Royal Academy. [lower-alpha 1] It was praised by contemporary critics and burnished Turner's reputation, both as an oil painter and as a painter of maritime scenes. [1]
The work measures 36 by 48.125 inches (91.44 cm × 122.24 cm) and is in oils. Fisherman at Sea depicts a moonlit view of fishermen on rough seas near the Isle of Wight, and is a work of marine art. It juxtaposes the fragility of human life, represented by the small boat with its flickering lamp, and the sublime power of nature, represented by the dark clouded sky, the wide sea, and the threatening rocks in the background. The cold light of the Moon at night contrasts with the warmer glow of the fishermen's lantern. [2] The chalk formations on the left of the work were traditionally thought to be the Needles on the western tip of the island; however, this has been contested, with some scholars suggesting that the chalk cliffs are instead the ones at the nearby Freshwater Bay. [3]
The work shows strong influence from the work of artists such as Claude Joseph Vernet, Philip James de Loutherbourg, and the intimate nocturnal scenes of Joseph Wright of Derby, especially in its handling of light and shadow. [3]
Turner enrolled at the Royal Academy of Arts at the age of 15. He began as primarily a watercolour painter in the early 1790s. He likely experimented with oil painting privately while in the Academy's schools, but if so, these oil paintings were not publicly shown and were lost. [1] In general, oil paintings were considered more prestigious in the era, and Turner recognized he would have to create them if he was to gain the recognition he desired; [3] Fishermen would be his first major oil painting. Turner had also done maritime scenes in watercolour during the early 1790s, showing an early interest in them. He traveled to the Isle of Wight in 1795 and took a sketchbook with him; the drawings and watercolours made then may have been used as reference material when composing Fishermen at Sea. [3] Turner had just turned twenty-one years old before the 1796 Royal Academy exhibition where Fishermen was unveiled to the public. [3]
The two paintings Fishermen at Sea and Moonlight, a Study at Millbank was sold together to an obscure person called "General Stewart" for £10 (adjusting for inflation, around £1300–1400 in 2022 currency). [3] The painting was acquired by Sir Henry Charles Englefield; after his death in 1822, it was sold at Christie's on 8 March 1823, as View of the Needles, with the effect of Moon and Fire Light. It was bought by Englefield's nephew Francis Cholmeley, and it remained in the Cholmeley family for nearly 150 years, displayed at Brandsby Hall, and it became known as the Cholmeley Sea Piece. It was loaned regularly to the Tate Gallery from 1931, and sold to the Tate Gallery in 1972 by Francis William Alfred Fairfax-Cholmeley, with finance from the Beatrice Lizzie Benson Fund.
Fishermen strengthened Turner's reputation. Possibly due to the Napoleonic Wars and the romantic importance of the sea and the British Navy during them, marine art was popular in Britain in the decades following Fishermen; Turner produced a number of similar works of marine art that sold for good prices. Years later, Turner made a similar watercolour study, Moonlight at Sea (c. 1818), for his Liber Studiorum , although the engraved plate was not published. [3] Other Turner pieces that play with the interaction of moonlight and the sea include Shields, on the River Tyne (1823), Temple of Poseidon at Sunion, Cape Colonna (c. 1834), Disaster at Sea (c. 1833–35), and Keelmen Heaving in Coals by Moonlight (1835). [3] Turner would revisit marine art with new vigor in the 1830s and onward; in the 1840s, seascapes would account for three-quarters of Turner's overall output. [4]
The contemporary journalist Anthony Pasquin (John Williams) gave a recommendation for the piece, writing that the painting "is one of the greatest proofs of an original mind, in the present pictorial display: the boats are buoyant and swim well, and the undulation of the element is admirably deceiving." [1] Art historian Andrew Wilton wrote in 1987 that the painting "is a summary of all that had been said about the sea by the artists of the 18th century." [1]
Joseph Mallord William Turner, known in his time as William Turner, was an English Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolourist. He is known for his expressive colouring, imaginative landscapes and turbulent, often violent marine paintings. He left behind more than 550 oil paintings, 2,000 watercolours, and 30,000 works on paper. He was championed by the leading English art critic John Ruskin from 1840, and is today regarded as having elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivalling history painting.
John Sell Cotman was an English marine and landscape painter, etcher, illustrator, and a leading member of the Norwich School of painters.
The Fighting Temeraire, tugged to her last berth to be broken up, 1838 is an oil-on-canvas painting by the English artist Joseph Mallord William Turner, painted in 1838 and exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1839.
Fred Appleyard was a British artist known for his landscape paintings, portraits, classical subjects and allegorical compositions. He had 41 works exhibited during his lifetime by the Royal Academy and painted the mural Spring Driving Out Winter in the Academy Restaurant.
William Marlow was an English landscape and marine painter and etcher.
John BerneyCrome was an English landscape and marine painter associated with the Norwich School of painters. He is sometimes known by the nickname 'Young Crome' to distinguish him from his father John, known as 'Old Crome'.
Light and Colour – The Morning after the Deluge – Moses Writing the Book of Genesis is an oil painting by the English painter Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851), first exhibited in 1843.
The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons, 16th October, 1834 is the title of two oil on canvas paintings by J. M. W. Turner, depicting different views of the fire that broke out at the Houses of Parliament on the evening of 16 October 1834. They are now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Cleveland Museum of Art.
The Fifth Plague of Egypt is an 1800 oil painting by Romantic English artist Joseph Mallord William Turner currently in the permanent collection at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Despite its title, it depicts Moses cursing the Egyptians with a plague of hail and fire, known as the seventh plague. It is one of the first works in which Turner uses an extreme representation of landscape and nature to explore the sublime.
Ulysses Deriding Polyphemus is an 1829 oil painting by Joseph Mallord William Turner. It depicts a scene from Homer's Odyssey, showing Odysseus (Ulysses) standing on his ship deriding Polyphemus, one of the cyclopes he encounters and has recently blinded, who is disguised behind one of the mountains on the left side. Additional details include the Trojan Horse, a scene from Virgil's Aeneid, on one of the flags and the horses of Apollo rising above the horizon. This painting is thought to be quickly done as a replacement for previous paintings submitted to the Academy that had been delayed. The painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1829. Acquired by the National Gallery in 1856, the painting is on display in room 34.
Snow Storm, or Snow Storm: Steam-Boat off a Harbour's Mouth, is a painting by English artist Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) from 1842.
In 1842, British artist J. M. W. Turner painted three watercolours of the Rigi, a mountain in the Alps in Central Switzerland, which he had visited the previous summer. Widely regarded as some of his finest works, the watercolours capture the transitory effects of light and atmospheric conditions at the Rigi. According to John Ruskin, "Turner had never made any drawings [watercolours] like these before, and never made any like them again ... He is not showing his hand in these, but his heart."
The brothers John Cantiloe Joy, and William Joy, were English marine artists, who lived and worked together. They belonged to the Norwich School of painters, considered to be a unique phenomenon in the history of British art and the most important school of painting of 19th century England.
The Golden Bough is a painting from 1834 by the English painter J. M. W. Turner. It depicts the episode of the golden bough from the Aeneid by Virgil. It is in the collection of the Tate galleries.
Interior of a Gothic Church is an early oil on board painting by English artist Joseph Mallord William Turner, made c. 1797.
Moonlight, a Study at Millbank is an oil painting by J. M. W. Turner, painted c. 1797. The nocturne is painted in oils on a mahogany board which measures 31.4 cm × 40.3 cm. It has been held by the Tate Gallery since 1910.
Tate Britain holds a self-portrait of J. M. W. Turner which it dates to c.1798 or c.1799, when the artist was aged about 23 or 24 years old.
Peace – Burial at Sea is a painting in oils on canvas by the English Romantic artist J. M. W. Turner (1775–1851), first exhibited in 1842. The work is a memorial tribute to Turner's contemporary the Scottish painter Sir David Wilkie (1786–1841). The canvas depicts Wilkie's burial at sea. This work was intended as a companion piece to War. The Exile and the Rock Limpet which alludes to the sordid demise of the former Emperor of France Napoleon Bonaparte. The two works are characterized by sharply contrasting colors and tones: War utilizes a strident yellow and red while Peace is painted a cool blend of white, blue and black.
The Funeral of Sir Thomas Lawrence is an 1830 watercolour painting by the British artist J. M. W. Turner. It depicts the funeral at St. Paul's Cathedral in London of Sir Thomas Lawrence, the President of the Royal Academy and a friend and colleague of Turner. Lawrence died unexpectedly in January, and the painting captures the snow-covered landscape of his burial ceremony. Turner served as one of the pallbearers and sketched the scene from memory. It was exhibited at the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition. It was later part of the 1856 Turner Bequest as is now in the collection of the Tate Britain.
