Turner. Snow Storm – Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth (1842)

Turner

Stories behind the Works of Art

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Snow Storm – Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth (1842). Turner

Turner, as every Romantic painter had a passionate spirit and generated atmospheres loaded with emotions, where nature revealed its beauty and infinite power over human beings. Turner was the great painter of the Romantic landscape. But there is something else that turns him into a crucial artist in the history of art: his interest in the “direct experience.” The interest in having the own experience (which no necessarily coincides with the one taught) that he would represent on the canvas. That attitude caused the Barbizon painters (in France) to paint in the open air, which was fundamental for Impressionism and the arrival of Modern Art.

Turner did not usually paint outdoors. He took notes from nature. Many times he lived the experience, took notes, and then he painted in his studio.

This work shows the infuriated nature, and people that criticized him accused him of painting “soap foam.” They complained about the “confusing images.” Turner, upset with the criticism, accused his detractors of not knowing the sea and asked “How do you think the sea is?”

When the steam-boat we see in this work goes off the harbor and faces the storm, the artist is one of its passengers. And he would tell the experience of how the work was painted: “I did not paint it to be understood, but I wished to show what such a scene was like; I got the sailors to lash me to the mast to observe it; I was lashed for four hours, and I did not expect to escape, but I felt bound to record it if I did.”

Turner was 67 and some people think the story is a bit fictional. But whether it happened or not, it is clear the need of the artist of getting involved with the work in a new way: with his eye and technical skill and also the emotions he felt.

Recommended links:

Romantic Landscape.

Characteristic Elements of Romantic Painting.

The direct experience and its importance for modern art.

Turner Seascapes and Romanticism.

Stories behind the Works of Art: Monet and the Rouen Cathedral.

Fundamental Paintings to Understand the History of Painting: Mont Saint-Victoire, Paul Cézanne.

Stories behind Works of Art: The Birth of Venus, Sandro Botticelli.

Stories Behind Works of Art: Ulysses and the Sirens, John William Waterhouse.

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