J. M. W. Turner

Every post here is by J. M. W. Turner.

Erisava Staff Jul 10

The Shipwreck by J. M. W. Turner, 1805

The Shipwreck

National Gallery · wikidata.org

Public domain

Wrecks at sea sold well, and this one got engraved as a print not long after, which is supposedly how most people at the time would have run into it rather than in any gallery.

Erisava Staff Jul 6

Snow Storm: Steam-Boat off a Harbour's Mouth by J. M. W. Turner, 1842

Snow Storm: Steam-Boat off a Harbour's Mouth

National Gallery · wikidata.org

Public domain

The story that went round was that he'd had himself lashed to a ship's mast for hours in a real storm to see one properly — apparently that claim has been doubted for a very long time now. The critics of the day weren't kind either; one of them dismissed it as soapsuds and whitewash.