The Fighting Temeraire
| The Fighting Temeraire tugged to her last Berth to be broken up, 1838 | |
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| Artist | J. M. W. Turner |
| Year | 1839 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 91 cm × 122 cm (36 in × 48 in) |
| Location | National Gallery, London |
The Fighting Temeraire tugged to her last berth to be broken up, 1838 is an oil painting by the English artist Joseph Mallord William Turner. It was painted in 1838 and exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1839. The 98-gun ship HMS Temeraire was one of the last second-rate ships of the line to have played a distinguished role in the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. The painting depicts HMS Temeraire being towed by a paddle-wheel steam tug towards its final berth in Rotherhithe in south-east London in 1838 to be broken up for scrap. The painting hangs in the National Gallery, London, having been bequeathed to the nation by the artist in 1851. In 2005 it was voted the nation's favourite painting in a poll organised by BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
When Turner came to paint this picture he was at the height of his career, having exhibited at the Royal Academy, London, for 40 years. He was renowned for his highly atmospheric paintings in which he explored the subjects of the weather, the sea and the effects of light. He spent much of his life near the River Thames and did many paintings of ships and waterside scenes, both in watercolour and in oils. Turner frequently made small sketches and then worked them into finished paintings in the studio.
He almost certainly did not witness the actual towing of Temeraire and used considerable licence in the painting which had a symbolic meaning for him, that his first audience immediately appreciated. Turner had been eighteen years old when Britain entered the Napoleonic Wars and "had a strong patriotic streak". The Temeraire was a very well-known ship from her heroic performance at Trafalgar, and her sale by the Admiralty had attracted considerable press coverage, which was probably what brought the subject to his attention.
The composition of this painting is unusual in that the most significant object, the old warship, is positioned well to the left of the painting, where it rises in stately splendour and almost ghostlike colours against a triangle of blue sky and rising mist that throws it into relief. The beauty of the old ship is in stark contrast to the dirty blackened tugboat with its tall smokestack, which scurries across the still surface of the river.
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