The Shipwreck

~ image ~ Sedja in the studio with 'The Shipwreck' by William Turner

One of my all-time favourite paintings is 'The Shipwreck' by William Turner, who proved his metal in this 1805 oil painting for all to see.

It is such a tragic scene, with the death of a ship in a fierce storm and the desperate attempt to rescue survivors.

So many lives were lost to the ocean over the centuries and still are, when people take their fate in their hands on the waves.

Turner did not just observe, but also immersed himself in the experience, as when he had himself tied to the mast of a ship in a storm, so he could feel the experience that he sought to paint.

Such was the movement of light and elements in his art, that he broke the old ways of painting Nature with a new vigorous experience of the land and seascape.

His later art heralds the vision of the Impressionists that were to follow and in many ways, Turner's work is the dawn of the modern art movements that blossomed in the wake of those magicians of light.

Turner's 'Shipwreck' still looks back to an earlier time when art was more formal, but as if the ocean is released through the canvas, a new vision is washing through and a new adventure in art is upon us.