This artwork is one of the top 20 UK railway artworks voted for by the public as part of Railway 200.

In the spring of 1844, writes art historian John Gage, 'Railway Mania, which had been shaking England for nearly a decade, entered upon its final and most manic phase.' Symptoms of this, he argues, include the 220 bills introduced to Parliament sanctioning new train lines, the strength of State Railway Shares and the much-feted opening of major new railway extensions.

It was within this context that J. M. W. Turner unveiled his celebrated painting Rain, Steam and Speed – The Great Western Railway at the Royal Academy in 1844.

As Gage has pointed out, many artists displayed 'a general indifference' to such contemporary subjects, but this was not the case with Turner. The artist was never one to shrink from modernity.

Now a much-loved highlight of The National Gallery's collection, Rain, Steam, and Speed shows a train hurtling towards us as it crosses Maidenhead Railway Bridge. The train has been identified as an engine of the 'Firefly' class and the bridge it crosses was designed and built for the Great Western Railway by none other than Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

View of the Viaduct of the Proposed Great Western Railway

With arches that were the largest and flattest that have ever been constructed, the bridge was 'one of the wonders of the day.'

Maidenhead Bridge over the Thames, Great Western Railway

In Turner's painting, the bridge projects diagonally from the centre of the canvas, where it emerges from a cloud of steam and mist. Above it is a typical Turner sky, while beneath the water is flecked with golden tones – the paint is thickly applied, and smeared to convey movement.

To the left of Brunel's bridge, we can see an older bridge in the distance and between the two, there is a small boat – is Turner juxtaposing the modern train with older forms of travel? On the bank between the two bridges small figures can be discerned – they seem to point and wave to the train. John Gage writes that these figures remind us 'that the railway was still a festive and popular entertainment', describing the crowds that came out to celebrate when new local lines were opened.

There is one detail of this painting that is difficult to make out, as the paint has sunk over time – a hare running along the tracks towards us, in advance of the train. This is a detail that Robert Brandard brought into sharper focus in his engraving and etching of Turner's work.

1859–1861, engraving by Robert Brandard (1805–1862) after J. M. W. Turner (1775–1851)

The same can be said of an unattributed mezzotint in the collection of the Aberdeen Art Gallery.

What Turner meant the hare to convey has been much debated. Some have argued that it represents the victory of nature over man – the hare is in front of the train, which lags behind it. Others have argued the opposite, suggesting that Turner shows man's progress catching up with – potentially soon overtaking – nature.

A bleaker interpretation is that the painting highlights humankind's destruction of nature; surely the hare can't outrun the train for long? One young boy who claimed to have seen Turner setting up the painting for exhibition was adamant that the artist had intended that the hare – and not the train – to signify the titular idea of speed.

But what inspired Turner's theme? One possible explanation can be found in the writing of the artist's great advocate, well-known art critic John Ruskin. He records an account written by a Mrs John Simon (née Jane O'Meara) who claimed to have shared a rail journey with Turner in June 1843. This journey, she claimed, inspired Rain, Steam, and Speed. In her account, Mrs Simon explains that she found herself trying to get from Plymouth to London one night during a wild storm.

Boarding a train near Exeter, she found that she was sharing her first-class carriage with 'two elderly, cosy, friendly-looking gentleman'. One of these, who sat opposite her, she described as possessing 'the most wonderful eyes I ever saw'. Somewhere near Bristol, this man asked her if he may lower the window to survey the scene, despite the torrents of rain that were bound to soak the carriage. She consented, and the man stuck his head out of the window for about nine minutes.

Deciding she wanted to experience the storm for herself, Mrs Simon followed suit and saw 'Such a sight, such a chaos of elemental and artificial lights and noises, I never saw or heard, or expected to see or hear.' Her new companion, meanwhile, leant back and closed his eyes for a time before announcing to the carriage that the experience had been worth getting drenched for.

The story has a coda. The next year, Mrs Simon visited the Royal Academy and was astonished to see Turner's painting on the wall – with a subtitle explaining that the subject was the Great Western Railway. 'Imagine my feelings', she said – 'I had found out who the "seeing" eyes belonged to!' She soon heard a 'mawkish voice' behind her say 'There now, just look at that; ain't it just like Turner? – whoever saw such a ridiculous conglomeration?' Mrs Simon turned around and said 'I did; I was in the train that night, and it is perfectly and wonderfully true.'

It is difficult to know if Mrs Simon's account is reliable – some have, for instance, pointed out that Turner's painting is of a daytime scene, while Simon describes a journey at night. Whether or not this anecdote is true, Turner certainly took inspiration from other works of art. Judy Egerton describes a number of prints which show trains running across the page on a diagonal line, much like Turner's.

Egerton also highlights a number of earlier works by Turner himself which have obvious parallels with the painting. These include The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons, 16th October 1834, the name of two paintings now in the Philadephia Museum of Art and the Cleveland Museum of Art respectively, which show a 'dramatically foreshortened perspective, slanting across the right half of the picture', much like Rain, Steam and Speed.

1834–1835, oil on canvas by J. M. W. Turner (1775–1851)

She also highlights Juliet and her Nurse, which also features a bridge that 'thrusts sharply into the bottom right corner of the picture and allows views on either side'.

Even more striking in its similarity to Rain, Steam and Speed, though, is Bellinzona from the Road to Locarno – a watercolour Egerton describes as Turner's 'rehearsal' for the later work, adding: 'From Bellinzona to Berkshire was no great distance for Turner's imagination.'

But how did the critics respond to Turner's painting when it was exhibited in 1844?

One, writing in The Times, said: 'The railways have furnished Turner with a new field for the exhibition of his eccentric style. His Rain, Steam, and Speed shows the Great Western in a very sudden perspective, and the dark atmosphere, the bright sparking fire of the engine, and the dusky smoke, form a very striking combination. Whether Turner's pictures are dazzling unrealities, or whether they are realities seized upon at a moment's glance, we leave his detractors and admirers to settle between them.'

This critic knew that Turner was not to everyone's taste – his unique style provoked many negative reactions in his own lifetime, including from Queen Victoria, who is said to have thought him quite mad! His Snow Storm of 1842, for instance, was memorably condemned as 'soapsuds and whitewash'. This painting, completed two years before Rain, Steam and Speed, was also (Turner claimed) inspired by his experience of a storm – on this occasion, he had supposedly lashed himself to the mast of a ship in order to study his theme.

Snow Storm - Steam-Boat off a Harbour's Mouth

Back at the Royal Academy in 1844, the novelist William Makepeace Thackeray had this to say of Rain, Steam and Speed: 'As for Mr Turner, he has out-prodigied all former prodigies. He has made a picture with real rain, behind which is real sunshine, and you expect a rainbow every minute. Meanwhile there comes a train down upon you, really moving at the rate of fifty miles an hour, and which the reader had best make haste to see, lest it should dash out of the picture, and be away up Charing Cross through the wall opposite.'

He concluded: 'The world has never seen anything like this picture.' As John Gage has pointed out, Thackeray clearly recognised the reality in Turner's painting.

Many later artists found inspiration in Rain, Steam, and Speed. The year after it was exhibited, David Cox produced Wind, Rain and Sunshine (a watercolour version is titled Sun, Wind and Rain) – both a title and subject that pays homage to Turner.

In 1873, Félix Bracquemond produced an etching and drypoint after Turner's painting, entitled La Locomotive.

1873, etching and drypoint by Félix Bracquemond (1833–1914) after J. M. W. Turner (1775–1851)

A more well-known French artist also appears to have been inspired by Turner. Claude Monet is likely to have seen Rain, Steam, and Speed in London, and critics have drawn parallels between Turner's work and Monet's paintings of the Argenteuil bridge – in some of these, a train is crossing the bridge. Even more striking, though, are the similarities between Rain, Steam, and Speed and Monet's well-known The Gare St-Lazare.

As Judy Egerton has pointed out, this painting owes something to Turner's 'atmospheric legacy'.

Anna Maria Barry, writer

This content was funded by Railway 200

Explore Turner's painting further with The Superpower of Looking

Further reading

John Gage, Turner: Rain, Steam and Speed (New York: The Viking Press Inc., 1972)

Judy Egerton, NG 538, Rain, Steam and Speed – The Great Western Railway. National Gallery, 2000, online version 3, 2025

John Ruskin, Ruskin's Dilecta, vol. XXXV

William Rodner, 'Snow Storm – Steam Boat off a Harbour's Mouth, 1842' in Encyclopedia of the Romantic Era, 1760–1850, Vol. 2 (New York: Fitzroy Darborn, 2004)

About Railway 200

Railway 200 is a cross-industry, UK Government-backed, partner-led celebration of the 200th anniversary of the birth of the modern railway, commemorating the opening by George Stephenson of the Stockton and Darlington Railway in the North East of England in 1825, a journey that changed the world forever. It explores the past, present and future of rail, and how it has shaped our lives and livelihoods. Numerous activities and events are planned throughout 2025, many of which are listed at www.railway200.co.uk