JMW Turner

Shipwrecks are the stuff of nightmares as we are stranded far away from home and at the mercy of the primal power of the elements. For this reason they are a common theme of Romantic paintings. Turner had a lifelong passion for the sea. It is unknown whether this work was painted from a scene he witnessed or inspired by a popular poem by William Falconer that was reissued in 1804. The dark tones of this painting is typical of Turner’s early work and provides a striking contrast with the white crests of the waves.

• Artist JMW Turner
• Artwork The Shipwreck exhibited 1805
• Image size 170.5 x 241.6 cm
• Date of work 1805
• Credit Oil paint on canvas 170.5 x 241.6 cm

Joseph Mallord William Turner was born in London; he remained a Londoner and kept a Cockney accent all his life despite dominating British landscape painting throughout the first half of the 19th century. He established a reputation in the Royal Academy, first as a topographical watercolourist and then within a few years as a painter of sublime and historical landscapes. From the mid-1790s he settled on the routine he maintained for much of his life: touring in summer and working in the studio in the winter months. He opened his own gallery and had many patrons and admirers as well as detractors. After his death a large body of his works in oil and watercolour was given to the British nation, with many on show at Tate Britain.