My initial reaction upon looking over Turner’s “Slave Ship” was that it appeared to be a beautiful landscape. The way the sky looks over the ship and the horizon line is really striking and powerful. However, as you start to look down you start to see the reason for the name of “Slave Ship”. Along the bottom of the painting you can see body parts of humans in the water. There are hands and feet, the foot on the bottom right has a shackle still attached to the ankle and there appear to be fish eating at the body. I think the most striking thing on first observation is how this painting is both exquisite and horrific simultaneously. That said, I’m continuously drawn to the fact that the whole painting seems cohesive except for what appear
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The book described a scene from 1783 involving a ship of slaves traveling across the Atlantic Ocean countless slaves had fallen ill on the open sea and the captain’s insurance policy didn’t cover deaths due to illness. It did however cover slaves who were lost at sea, so in an attempt to get his insurance payment, he ordered the sick slaves to jump overboard. This was clearly the primary motivation for Turner’s “Slave Ship”. Interestingly enough, slavery had actually been outlawed in the British Empire seven years prior to Turner’s work in 1833. Yet Turner was a big proponent of abolishing slavery, not just in Britain but across the entire …show more content…
You can see while observing the painting that Turner utilized broad and haphazard strokes while in the process of creating the art. The colors are what truly tell the story and the emotion of the piece. The deep oranges and reds seem to showcase how deadly nature can be in its most gruesome form. The blues and whites of the ocean show the beauty of the destruction. This technique used by Turner causes the majority of the image to almost appear out of focus. It’s this style that helps to force the viewer to reach deeper into their imagination and find their own inner meaning to the painting. It’s also important to note that the ship isn’t the focal point of the piece but rather the powerful open sea is where the painting is center on. While the painting was named “The Slave Ship” and that is obviously the main story behind the painting, the message is more about the power of nature over man than that of the slaves and the ship
The book described a scene from 1783 involving a ship of slaves traveling across the Atlantic Ocean countless slaves had fallen ill on the open sea and the captain’s insurance policy didn’t cover deaths due to illness. It did however cover slaves who were lost at sea, so in an attempt to get his insurance payment, he ordered the sick slaves to jump overboard. This was clearly the primary motivation for Turner’s “Slave Ship”. Interestingly enough, slavery had actually been outlawed in the British Empire seven years prior to Turner’s work in 1833. Yet Turner was a big proponent of abolishing slavery, not just in Britain but across the entire …show more content…
You can see while observing the painting that Turner utilized broad and haphazard strokes while in the process of creating the art. The colors are what truly tell the story and the emotion of the piece. The deep oranges and reds seem to showcase how deadly nature can be in its most gruesome form. The blues and whites of the ocean show the beauty of the destruction. This technique used by Turner causes the majority of the image to almost appear out of focus. It’s this style that helps to force the viewer to reach deeper into their imagination and find their own inner meaning to the painting. It’s also important to note that the ship isn’t the focal point of the piece but rather the powerful open sea is where the painting is center on. While the painting was named “The Slave Ship” and that is obviously the main story behind the painting, the message is more about the power of nature over man than that of the slaves and the ship