Lovers in a Wood by Moonlight
John Atkinson Grimshaw
1873
Ulysses Deriding Polyphemus (by MrsHappyHousewife)
Joseph Mallord William Turner
1829
Oil on Canvas
From the National Gallery:
“Ulysses is standing aloft on his ship deriding the Cyclops, whom he and his companions have just left blinded, and invoking the vengeance of Neptune. One of the flags is painted with the scene of the Trojan Horse. The horses of the Sun are rising above the horizon (‘Odyssey’, Book 9).
Apparently the idea was in Turner’s mind as early as about 1807, if this is the correct date of a sketchbook which contains a rough drawing of the subject. The picture was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1829.”
Fishing Boats with Hucksters Bargaining for Fish (1837/38) - Joseph Mallord William Turner
Oil on canvas
68 3/4 x 88 1/2in. (174.5 x 224.9 cm)
Valley of Aosta: Snowstorm, Avalanche, and Thunderstorm (1836/37) - Joseph Mallord William Turner
Oil on canvas
36 1/4 x 48 in. (92.2 x 123 cm)
Rain, Steam and Speed - The Great WesternRailway (by MrsHappyHousewife)
Oil on canvas
“The scene is fairly certainly identifiable as Maidenhead railway bridge, across the Thames between Taplow and Maidenhead. The bridge, which was begun on Brunel’s design in 1837 and finished in 1839, has two main arches of brick, very wide and flat. The view is to the east, towards London.”
Turner, J.M.W. (1775-1851) - 1813 Frosty Morning (Tate Gallery, London) (by RasMarley)
Oil on canvas; 114 x 175 cm.
“Joseph Mallord William Turner’s father, a barber and wigmaker, realized his son’s artistic talents early, asserting that “my son is going to be a painter.” Before enrolling in the Royal Academy, Turner gained some drawing experience in the offices several of London’s leading architects. He first exhibited watercolors of architectural subjects and then experimented with scenes from literature and scenery designs for operatic productions. In his early twenties Turner’s focus changed to historical landscapes. These large-scale paintings became increasingly divorced from nature and featured the loose, luminous brushwork and abstract conceptions for which he became known.At twenty-nine Turner opened his own gallery in London while also painting, exhibiting his own work, and teaching at the Royal Academy. A trip to Italy at the age of forty-four drastically altered his style, leading to his late emphasis on the power of color and light to create dramatic, evocative scenes. Turner’s body of work includes around three hundred paintings and over twenty thousand drawings and watercolors, the majority of which were given to the English government upon his death. Most are now owned by the Tate Gallery in London.”
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.
