polity united kingdom victorianconcept:era modern
Snow Storm: Steam-Boat off a Harbour's Mouth
Oil on canvas (1842) by J.M.W. Turner, depicting a steamboat in a vortex of storm. Turner claimed to have had himself lashed to the mast to experience the storm firsthand. Held at Tate Britain, London.
Scholarly Significance
Turner's most radical dissolution of form in a maritime scene; the work that prompted his famous 'soapsuds and whitewash' dismissal.
Notes
- ·Exhibited at the Royal Academy 1842 with full title: 'Snow Storm — Steam-Boat off a Harbour's Mouth Making Signals in Shallow Water, and Going by the Lead. The Author was in this Storm on the Night the Ariel left Harwich.'
- ·Turner claimed to have been lashed to the mast of the Ariel for four hours; no contemporary record confirms the Ariel made this voyage.
- ·The Spectator review called it 'soapsuds and whitewash'; Turner defended it vehemently.
- ·The vortex composition concentrates energy at the center — a formal device Turner used repeatedly.
- ·Entered the Tate (then National Gallery) via Turner Bequest, 1856.