Turner's Europe

Joseph Mallord William Turner, The Shipwreck  exhibited 1805

Storms and shipwrecks were a popular theme when Turner painted this. Fishermen battle waves, attempting rescue of an overcrowded lifeboat. A capsized ship lies behind on the dark sea. Turner specialised in the maritime Sublime – dramatic scenes that powerfully conveyed the danger of life at sea. He does this here by placing us, the viewer, close to the drama. With no land in sight, it is as if we are out on the stormy sea, too. The painting may have been inspired by an 1804 edition of William Falconer’s poem, The Shipwreck, which was illustrated by elder marine painter Nicholas Pocock.

Gallery label, October 2023

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Shipping at the Mouth of the Thames  c.1806–7

In this unfinished painting, small craft are tossed about on choppy waves. The grey silhouette looming behind them is a Royal Navy guardship. Ready to defend in case of invasion, this guardship is perhaps the one stationed at the Nore, a sandbank near Sheerness on the Thames Estuary. Keen to depict such an important defensive location at a time when Britain was at war with France, Turner painted the Thames Estuary many times. This painting shows how he used loose, broad brushstrokes and pale colours to sketch out his composition and create light effects. The pale background gives it luminosity.

Gallery label, October 2023

Joseph Mallord William Turner, Spithead: Two Captured Danish Ships Entering Portsmouth Harbour  1807–9

French leader Napoleon’s war tactics included blockades preventing British trade. Fearing he would force neutral Denmark to block Britain’s access to Baltic sea trade, in 1807, the British navy captured Denmark’s fleet. Turner painted this after watching captured Danish ships arrive off Spithead, a strait of the English Channel. Britain’s attack proved dangerously provocative and a backlash ensued. Turner changed this painting’s title to disguise its connection with the episode. It became Boat’s Crew Recovering an Anchor. Those who looked closely, however, would have seen the Danish flag flying beneath the British one on the ship on the right.

Gallery label, October 2023

Nicholas Pocock, The cutting out of HMS Hermione, 24 October 1799  Date not known

Joseph Mallord William Turner, The Battle of Trafalgar, as Seen from the Mizen Starboard Shrouds of the Victory  1806–8

This painting was praised as the first ‘British epic picture’ because it combines key moments of the Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805) in one composition. At bottom left British naval leader Horatio Nelson collapses on the Victory’s deck, shot by a French sniper seen high up in the right-hand ship’s crows’ nest. French flags are lowered, conceding defeat. These moments are set within a wider view of the claustrophobic, smoke-filled combat zone. Trafalgar was a bittersweet moment for Britain. Celebration of victory over the French and Spanish navies mixed with grief over the death of naval hero Nelson.

Gallery label, October 2023