The Fighting Temeraire
The Fighting Temeraire, tugged to her last berth to be broken up, 1838 is an oil-on-canvas painting by the English artist Joseph Mallord William Turner, painted in 1838 and exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1839.[1]
This article is about the painting. For the 1971 novel about a British nuclear submarine, see John Winton.The Fighting Temeraire, tugged to her last Berth to be broken up, 1838
The painting depicts the 98-gun HMS Temeraire, one of the last second-rate ships of the line to have played a role in the Battle of Trafalgar, being towed up the Thames by a paddle-wheel steam tug in 1838, towards its final berth in Rotherhithe to be broken up for scrap.
The painting hangs in the National Gallery, London, having been bequeathed to the nation by the artist in 1851, as part of the Turner Bequest. In a poll organised by BBC Radio 4's Today programme in 2005, it was voted the nation's favourite painting.[2] In 2020 it was included on the new £20 banknote, along with the artist's 1799 self-portrait.
Background[edit]
When Turner came to paint this picture he was at the height of his career, having exhibited at the Royal Academy, London for 40 years.[3] He was renowned for his highly atmospheric paintings in which he explored the subjects of the weather, the sea and the effects of light. He spent much of his life near the River Thames and did many paintings of ships and waterside scenes, both in watercolour and in oils. Turner frequently made small sketches and then worked them into finished paintings in the studio.
The current scholarly view is that it cannot be determined whether Turner actually witnessed the towing of the Temeraire, although several older accounts say that he watched the event from a variety of places on the river.[4][5][6][7][8]
He used considerable artistic licence in the painting, which had a symbolic meaning that his first audience immediately appreciated.[9][10] Turner was twenty-eight years old when Britain entered the Napoleonic Wars and "had a strong patriotic streak". The Temeraire was a well-known ship from her heroic performance at the Battle of Trafalgar, and her sale by the Admiralty had attracted substantial press coverage, which was probably what brought the subject to his attention.[11] Instead of the Temeraire flying the Union Jack, the tug is flying a white flag, evidence of the ship's sale to a private company.[12]
In popular culture and on currency[edit]
The painting is used in the 2012 James Bond film Skyfall to be symbolic of Bond's age and standing within MI6.[30]
In February 2020, the Bank of England introduced a new polymer £20 note, featuring Turner's c. 1799 self-portrait, with The Fighting Temeraire in the background.[31] The quote "Light is therefore colour" from an 1818 lecture by Turner, and a copy of his signature as made on his will are also included.[32]
The painting is the inspiration for the "Glowing Painting" found in the 2020 Nintendo series Animal Crossing: New Horizons.[33]
