Rain, Steam and Speed – The Great Western Railway (1844)
by Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851)
Medium: oil on canvas
Dimensions: H 91 x W 121.8 cm
This is one of Turner's masterpieces, in which all of the elements of water, land and sky seem to fuse in a haze of painterly brushwork. This foggy, natural atmosphere is cut through on a sharp diagonal by a man-made train. What is Turner saying about the role of this steel locomotion in the midst of nature's fields and waterways? Can you spot the tiny boat on the left and the ploughman and his labourers on the right? Can you spot the tiny hare? Before the arrival of the train – a symbol of industrialisation – a hare would have been considered very fast.
Do Turner's loose, painterly brushstrokes help to create this distinctive atmosphere? Is the scene a depiction of what he saw or what he felt? It is likely to be a combination of his memory and imagination.