The Fighting Temeraire

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) was born in Covent Garden and lived in London all his life. He was admitted to study at the prestigious Royal Academy School aged just 14 and found success as an artist at an early age. Along with artists like Constable, Goya and Delacroix, Turner became one of the most celebrated painters of the Romantic movement of the late 1700s and early 1800s. The characteristics of this movement can be difficult to define, but have their roots in liberty, individual rights, creativity, our relationship with nature, a nostalgia for a time before industrialisation and a sense of emotion and spirituality.

Turner painted The Fighting Temeraire in 1839. The painting re-imagines the final journey of HMS Temeraire, a 98-gun warship which featured in the Napoleonic wars and played a significant role in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, being towed from Sheerness to Rotherhithe to be broken up.  The painting is a reflection on the end of an era, with Turner’s masterful use of light and colour evoking a sense of loss, particularly in the symbolism of the sunset – and end of days. The Temeraire appears almost ghostly, although still elegant and magnificent in size, while the modern tugboat appears plain and utilitarian, puffing out smoke as it diligently undertakes its rather sad but perhaps inevitable role in a new, industrial age.

Did you know?

The Fighting Temeraire was voted Britain’s favourite painting in a BBC poll in 2005.

Use our Classroom resources to investigate this object, the Industrial Revolution and the Arts in the Age of Revolution further.

Highlights:

• Using objects, artworks and other sources to find out about the past
• Using museum collections as creative starters
• How to make a revolutionary stop-frame animation

And much more…