mineralspiritpoisoning:

Joseph Mallord William Turner. The Slave Ship or Slaver Throwing overboard the Dead and Dying- Typhoon Coming On. 1840, Oil on Canvas.

I loved this painting, until I realised what was happening in it. Still I can appreciate the lovely, colors of the sunset. The lovely bloody colors.

 Turner was known for his later abstract style seen in the above image. Abstract painting was a little too futuristic for Turner’s time however, and his buddies thought he had lost his shit. His epic stories no longer came from mythology or history but-God forbid-seemingly minor current events.

 The Slave Ship was inspired by a recent newspaper article on how a ship’s captain jettisoned slaves in order to collect the insurance that covered ‘lost cargo’ but not from illness. 

 So yeah those lovely colors in the water is blood. Blood from drowning slaves being eaten by fish and birds.