Slave Ship Painting

Miranda Viehman

Hum 101

Professor Bomboy

20 December 2015

The Slave Ship

    Joseph Mallord William Turner is an English Romanticist landscape painter, who is also noted as a great master of British watercolor landscape painting. While Traveling widely across Europe and studying in the Louvre in Paris, Turner became attracted to painting storms in the sea.  Turner was known as a controversial figure in his day, which he shows with his painting The Slave Ship.  

    As a romanticist artist, Turner sacrificed lines to emphasize color. For most of the painting we see vibrant oranges and red creating this typical sunset. This sunset seems to be the focal point, however the flow of color down the painting soon brings the focus to the foreground. In the foreground of the painting, a very neutral color pallet is used which shows body parts in the water. Black is also used foreground, which stands out from the neutral colors to make the audience realize that these people in the water were shackled, and therefore slaves thrown overboard from the ship.   Also, due to a lack of definite lines, the red runs into the ocean and into the water of the bodies, creating this effect of blood draining from the drowning slaves. Shifting to the left portion, there are many different colors being sed. These blues, greys, and purples create this sense that a storm is coming, which is further demonstrated by the ships having its sails down. (Kiero, 2015) There is also contrast to the beauty of nature and the cruelty of humans. The areas of the painting containing humans, the ship and foreground are dominated by dark, dull colors whereas the areas of nature, such as the sun and sky, contain more light and vibrant colors. Turner’s lack of lines allows the painting to show how nature is a part of the human life, and allows the focus point to shift in the painting. Furthermore, Turner’s use of color shows how beautiful nature can be in contrast to how dark humans can be.

    Turner shows two main ideas throughout this painting. He shows throughout the painting the indifference of nature and the elements. On one hand, the sky and darkness around the ship shows the typhoon and the storm coming for the ship, yet on the other hand, Turner shows glimpses of fish and other sea creatures attacking the slaves in the water.  (J.M. Turner Bibliography, 2015) However, his primary idea in the painting is to show the inhumane actions that people are capable of. As an abolitionist, one of his main goals of this painting was to help the idea of outlawing slavery worldwide, In 1840, Turner’s inspiration for the painting came after he read The History and Abolition of the Slave Trade, by Thomas Clarkson. Clarkson had written about the slave ship Zong that, in 1781, had 133 slaves ordered to be thrown overboard so that the insurance payments would be made. Showing this in the painting, Turner wanted to show the world how cruel one man could be to another. Therefore, he decided to accompany the exhibit of his painting with a meeting of the British Anti-Slavery Society.

    Turner was successful in showing his two ideas. At first the storm seems like divine retribution as the storm comes for the slave ship. But the fact that nature is affecting not only the slave ship but the storm will also cause the slaves that were thrown overboard to drown really shows the equality of nature and her effects on humans.(Arts, 2015) Furthermore, the chained slaves drowning while being attacked by the fish, all while the ship is sailing away, effectively shows the brutality of the humans onboard the ship. Personally, I found the Turners ideas of nature interesting but the painting itself gave me fixed feeling. Initially I was saddened while looking at the slaves drowning. However, the fact that this painting was used to create awareness for these slaves and all the other slaves gave me a heartwarming feeling that there are people in this world who will stand up for what is right. I take the a Post-Colonial critical viewpoint on this painting as Turner stood up for a minority group in the world at the time, even though as a British white male, he had no affiliation with the slaves.

At the time, Turner created the painting to show the cruelty of humans and to try to help abolish slavery. Nature is always very prevalent in this painting, however this should be no surprise as Turner was a famous landscape artist.  Using the elements of color and lines (lack of), Turner pictures the beauty of nature and dark side of humanity. Turner also exemplifies the indifference of nature as it affects all of the people in the painting.  In reality, Turner used this painting to take a stand against inhumanity and slavery, unfortunately to some; The Slave Ship was just another piece in Turners collection.

  

Arts, M. o. (2015, Decemeber ). Slave Ship. Retrieved from Museum of Fine Arts: http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/slave-ship-slavers-throwing-overboard-the-dead-and-dying-typhoon-coming-on-31102

J.M. Turner Bibliography. (2015, Decemeber 19). Retrieved from http://www.biography.com/people/jmw-turner-40806

Kiero, G. K. (2015). The Humanistic Traditions. new york,NY: McGraw Hill Education.

Turner the Slave Ship. (2015, Decemeber ). Retrieved from http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/classes/4c/turner.004.htm