When Turner came to paint this picture he was at the height of his career, having exhibited at the Royal Academy, London for 40 years.[3] He was renowned for his highly atmospheric paintings in which he explored the subjects of the weather, the sea and the effects of light. He spent much of his life near the River Thames and did many paintings of ships and waterside scenes, both in watercolour and in oils. Turner frequently made small sketches and then worked them into finished paintings in the studio.
The current scholarly view is that it cannot be determined whether Turner actually witnessed the towing of the Temeraire, although several older accounts say that he watched the event from a variety of places on the river.[4][5][6][7][8]
He used considerable artistic licence in the painting, which had a symbolic meaning that his first audience immediately appreciated.[9][10] Turner was twenty-eight years old when Britain entered the Napoleonic Wars and "had a strong patriotic streak". The Temeraire was a well-known ship from her heroic performance at the Battle of Trafalgar, and her sale by the Admiralty had attracted substantial press coverage, which was probably what brought the subject to his attention.[11] Instead of the Temeraire flying the Union Jack, the tug is flying a white flag, evidence of the ship's sale to a private company.[12]
Symbolism
Detail of the old warship and tugboat
The composition of this painting is unusual in that the most significant object, the old warship, is positioned well to the left of the painting, where it rises in stately splendour and almost ghostlike colours against a triangle of blue sky and rising mist that throws it into relief. The beauty of the old ship contrasts with the dirty blackened tugboat with its tall smokestack, which churns the otherwise still surface of the river.
The blue triangle frames a second triangle of masted ships, which decrease in size as they become more distant. The Temeraire and tugboat have passed a small river craft with its gaff riggedsail barely catching a breeze. Beyond this a square-rigger drifts, with all its sail extended. Another small craft shows as a patch of white farther down the river. In the far distance, beyond a second tugboat which makes its way towards them, a three-masted ship rides at anchor. The becalmed vessels show the obsolescence of sail.
On the opposite side of the painting to Temeraire, the same distance from the frame as the ship's main mast, the Sun sets above the estuary, its rays extending into the clouds above it, and across the surface of the water. The red of the clouds is reflected in the river, repeating the colour of the smoke from the tugboat. The sun setting symbolises the end of an era; one where sail has been overtaken by steam.[13]
Behind Temeraire, a sliver of Moon casts a beam across the river, symbolising the commencement of the new, industrial era.[14] The demise of heroic strength is the main subject of the painting. It has been suggested that the ship stands for the artist himself, with an accomplished and glorious past but now contemplating his mortality. Turner called the work his "darling".[15]
Sir Henry Newbolt later wrote a ballad titled The Fighting Temeraire, describing the same scene: "And she's fading down the river, But in England's song for ever, She's the Fighting Téméraire."
Artistic licence
Detail of bottom right corner
Turner took a degree of artistic licence with the painting. The ship was known to her crew as "Saucy", rather than "Fighting" Temeraire.[16] Before being sold to the ship-breaker John Beatson, the ship had been lying at Sheerness Dockyard, and was then moved to his wharf at Rotherhithe,[17] then in Surrey but now in Southwark. As shown in a "prosaic drawing, made on the spot by a trained observer" (William Beatson, the ship-breaker's brother) and turned into a lithograph, her masts and rigging were removed before her sale and journey to the breaker's yard.[18] All of her cannon, anchors and assorted hardware had been removed and salvaged for the navy to use as spare parts.[19][20] She was towed by two tugboats, not just one,[21] and in the other direction (the sun sets in the west, while the Thames estuary is at the river's eastern end).[22] One of the tugboats, that depicted in the painting, was John Rogers Watkins'Monarch.[23]
History of the painting
When exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1839 the painting was a considerable success, praised in various of the lengthy press reviews that the Summer Exhibitions then received as a "grand image of the last days of one of Britain's bulwarks" as The Spectator put it.[24] The novelist William Makepeace Thackeray, reviewing for Fraser's Magazine "in the form of mostly facetious letters" supposedly by "Michael Angelo Titmarsh Esq." abandoned his usual flippant tone when discussing "as grand a picture as ever figured on the walls of any academy, or came from the easel of any painter".[25] Turner displayed the painting in 1839 accompanied by an altered excerpt from Thomas Campbell's poem Ye Mariners of England, reading:
Turner objected to this 1845 engraving by James Tibbits Willmore correcting the painting by putting the mast of the tug before its smokestack
The flag which braved the battle and the breeze, No longer owns her.[26][27][19]
Turner kept the painting in his studio, which also functioned as a showroom for buyers, until his death. In 1844 he loaned it as part of his deal for reproductions to the print publisher J. Hogarth, who exhibited it at his premises, but about a year later wrote a draft note replying to another request saying that "no consid[eratio]ns of money or favour can induce me to lend my Darling again". Hogarth's steel engraving by James Tibbits Willmore, who had often engraved Turners, was published in 1845 and was the first of many reproductions in various techniques.[28] In about 1848 Turner refused an offer to buy the painting reputed to have been £5,000, followed by a "blank cheque", having determined to leave it to the nation, and already being very well-off.[29]
Detail of the frame
It was evidently usually among the works on display in the studio, and is mentioned by several visitors.[29] He intended to leave his paintings to the nation but the terms of his will were unclear and after his death in 1851 his will was contested by relatives, and several years of litigation were only ended in 1856, when this and a large body of other work entered the collection of the National Gallery. Most of the "Turner Bequest" was turned over to Tate Britain when that was established in 1897, but the Fighting Temeraire remained in the National Gallery. It was in the Tate Gallery (as it then was) from 1910 to 1914 and 1960 to 1961, and for six months in 1987 to mark the opening of the Clore Gallery there, which houses the rest of the Bequest. In 1947–48 it went on a European tour to Amsterdam, Bern, Paris, Brussels, Liège, ending at the Venice Biennale. In 1952 it was exhibited in Cape Town.[28]
The picture remains in "exceptionally good condition", apart from slightly discoloured varnish, and seems never to have received conservation treatment beyond the removal of surface dirt in 1945 and a lining in 1963. X-ray images reveal that Turner seems to have used a canvas on which he had started another marine picture, with a large sail where the tugboat's above-deck structures now are.[28]
In popular culture and on currency
The painting is used in the 2012 James Bond film Skyfall to be symbolic of Bond's age and standing within MI6.[30]
In February 2020, the Bank of England introduced a new polymer £20 note, featuring Turner's c.1799 self-portrait, with The Fighting Temeraire in the background.[31] The quote "Light is therefore colour" from an 1818 lecture by Turner, and a copy of his signature as made on his will are also included.[32]
Barge often refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but on inland waterways, most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels. The term barge has a rich history, and therefore there are many other types of barges.
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.
Six ships and two shore establishments of the Royal Navy have been called HMS Temeraire. The name entered the navy with the capture of the first Temeraire from the French in 1759:
St Mary's Church, Rotherhithe, is the local Church of England parish church in Rotherhithe, formerly in Surrey and now part of south east London. The parish is now within the diocese of Southwark and under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Fulham. The 18th-century church is in St Marychurch Street and is dedicated to Mary, mother of Jesus, and it is particularly proud of its connections with the Pilgrim Fathers. It remains a living and working church, supported by local people and serving a broad community.
HMS Defiance was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built by Randall and Co., at Rotherhithe on the River Thames, and launched on 10 December 1783.
HMS Neptune was a 98-gun second-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. She served on a number of stations during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and was present at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.
HMS Temeraire was a 98-gun second-rate ship of the line of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy. Launched in 1798, she served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, mostly on blockades or convoy escort duties. She fought only one fleet action, the Battle of Trafalgar, but became so well known for that action and her subsequent depictions in art and literature that she has been remembered as The Fighting Temeraire.
The Battle of Trafalgar, 21 October 1805 is an 1822 painting by British artist J. M. W. Turner. It was commissioned by King George IV as a part of a series of works to decorate three state reception rooms in St James's Palace and link the Hanoverian dynasty with military success. This work was Turner's only royal commission, and was to stand as the pendant piece to Philippe-Jacques de Loutherbourg's Lord Howe's action, or the Glorious First of June. This massive history painting measures 2,615 millimetres x 3,685 millimetres and is his largest work. It was given to Greenwich Hospital shortly after its original installation. The painting now hangs in the National Maritime Museum, also in Greenwich, London.
Neptune was a Bucentaure-class 80-gun ship of the line of the French Navy. Built during the last years of the French Revolutionary Wars she was launched at the beginning of the Napoleonic Wars. Her brief career with the French included several major battles, though she spent the last 12 years of her life under the Spanish flag.
Achille was a Téméraire-class 74-gun French ship of the line built at Rochefort in 1803 after plans by Jacques-Noël Sané.
Jean Jacques Étienne Lucas was a French Navy officer, famous for his role in the Battle of Trafalgar.
Dispatch boats were small boats, and sometimes large ships, tasked to carry military dispatches from ship to ship or from ship to shore or, in some cases from shore to shore. Dispatch boats were employed when other means of transmitting a message was not possible or safe or as quick.
Lord Howe's Action, or the Glorious First of June is a 1795 painting by Philippe-Jacques de Loutherbourg of the victory of British naval forces under Lord Howe over a French force led by Louis Thomas Villaret de Joyeuse on the Glorious First of June 1794. After time in the Royal Collection of George IV, it is in the collection of the National Maritime Museum and on display in the ground floor of its Queen's House.
Thomas Fortescue Kennedy was an officer of the Royal Navy who served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
Thomas Eyles was an officer of the Royal Navy who served during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
Rear-Admiral Sir John Hill was an officer of the Royal Navy who served during the American War of Independence, and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.
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.
Dido building Carthage, or The Rise of the Carthaginian Empire is an oil on canvas painting by J. M. W. Turner. The painting is one of Turner's most important works, greatly influenced by the luminous classical landscapes of Claude Lorrain. Turner described it as his chef d'oeuvre. First exhibited at the Royal Academy summer exhibition in 1815, Turner kept the painting until he left it to the nation in the Turner Bequest. It has been held by the National Gallery in London since 1856.
Knocker White is a Dutch-built tugboat, currently preserved as a museum ship at Trinity Buoy Wharf. She was built in 1924 by T. van Duivendijk, Lekkerkerk, Netherlands for Harrisons Lighterage Company, under the name Cairnrock.
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.
↑ Hawes, noting that: "Also, the locale of the painting may possibly be "Lime House Reach," near Greenwich and Rotherhithe, which runs south for a brief stretch; this is the one area along the Thames where the setting September sun would appear, in actuality, to the right of the ship, albeit considerably farther to the right than in the painting". Hawes, p. 43, footnote 6. However, since it is unlikely Turner actually saw the journey from any vantage place, the point is moot.
↑ Mitchell, WH; Sawyer, LA (1990). The Empire Ships (Seconded.). London, New York, Hamburg, Hong Kong: Lloyd's of London Press Ltd. p.231. ISBN1-85044-275-4.
Egerton, Judy (1998). National Gallery Catalogues (new series): The British School. ISBN1857091701.
Hawes, Louis (1972). "Turner's Fighting Temeraire". Art Quarterly, XXXV, pp. 22–48.
Langmuir, Erica (1997). The National Gallery companion guide (revised edition). London: National Gallery. ISBN185709218X.
Moyle, Franny (2016). Turner: The Extraordinary Life and Momentous Times of J.M.W. Turner. Penguin. ISBN978-0735220928.
Willis, Sam (2010). The Fighting Temeraire: Legend of Trafalgar. London: Quercus. ISBN978-1-84916-261-6.
Wilton, Andrew (1979). J.M.W. Turner: His Art and Life. Tabard Press. ISBN0-914427-01-6.
The Oxford Companion to J.M.W. Turner (Evelyn Joll, Martin Butlin, and Luke Hermann, editors), pp. 106–07. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. ISBN0 19 860025 9.
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