Arcadópolis
Snow Storm: Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth
J. M. W. Turner, 1842
What you see
At the center, the dark hull of a steamboat is half swallowed by waves and snow, with a thin mast and a small flag rising above it. Everything else spins around it like a whirlpool: sea, wind and a plume of brown smoke curling toward the upper right. The eye is pulled in a spiral toward that center.
The palette is narrow: whites, grays, ochres and blacks, with a touch of blue-green in the wave at lower right. The paint is dragged in long, curving strokes that follow the movement of the storm. Look for the small yellow glow beside the hull, the only warm spot in all that cold.
About J. M. W. Turner
Joseph Mallord William Turner was called “the painter of light”. He painted storms, raging seas, fog and colourful sunsets, and it is said he once had himself tied to a ship’s mast to watch a storm. He left thousands of works to his country, most of them kept today at the Tate in London.
More by J. M. W. Turner
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