JMW Turner's 'The Fighting Temeraire' - Britain's Greatest Ever Painting?

Every major Turner exhibition or book always has his famous painting 'The Fighting Temeraire' (Figure 1) in, with many opinions about why it is so important. The artwork was voted in a BBC poll in 2005 by the public as Britain's greatest ever painting beating off John Constable's 'The Hay Wain' quite comfortably. This acknowledgement adds a lot of credibility to the role of maritime art in Britain and shows the nation still regards works of the 19th century incredibly highly.

Personally I find the painting interesting on various levels. I think it is a bold cross between realism and impressionism that Turner was starting to turn to later in his career. The role of HMS Temeraire in the Battle of Trafalgar was key and the fact that it was now being towed by a small steam boat showed how times had changed. The rising of the moon in the top left hand corner and the setting of the sun on the right show that the age of wind powered ships was ending and a new dawn of steam boats was coming. Other artists such as Clarkson Stanfield were still depicting the Battle of Trafalgar at around this time and others such as E.W. Cooke, George Chambers and A.W. Callcott were still depicting traditional maritime art.

Turner was always prepared to try something new and he is a very much a cross between the old school artists and the new era of impressionism. Today many people probably take this for granted but Turner was entering somewhere no other artist of this period was prepared to do in the way that he did.

Do you agree that this is Britain's Greatest Painting? Also have you seen this painting in the National Gallery? If you haven't I recommend you go to see it first the next time you are in the Gallery!

Figure 1: JMW Turner, 'The Fighting Temeraire', Tugged to her Last Berth to be Broken Up, 1838 (1839), Oil-on-canvas, 90.7 x 121.6cm, National Gallery.