| Turner first painted this ship of the line in 1808 in his picture The Battle of Trafalgar where he described her as to be seen over the shattered stern of the French ship Redoutable, Admiral Harvey engaged with the Fogieux, and part of the French line. The Temeraire has become a symbol of naval heroism. She was the second ship in the line of battle at Trafalgar. When she tried to pass the Victory to take on herself the fire directed at Nelson's ship, Nelson ordered her to keep astern. She held back, receiving the enemy's fire without returning a shot, then later in battle goes to the flag ship rescue, incurring much damage in doing so. To quote Ruskin, "Two hours later, she lay with a French seventy four gun ship on each side of her, both her prizes, one lashed to her mainmast, and one to her anchor.
Ruskin then concludes his account of Turner's Fighting Temeraire with one of the most beautiful paragraphs in English prose. "We have stern keepers to trust her glory to-the fire and the worm. Never more shall sunset lay golden robes on her, nor starlight tremble on the waves that part at her gliding. Perhaps, where the low gate opens to some cottage-garden, the tired traveller may ask, idly, why the moss grows so green on its rugged wood; and even the sailor's child may not answer, nor know, that the night-dew lies deep in the war-rents of the wood of the old Temeraire.
William Makepeace Thackeray's admired point of view. "The little demon of a steamer is belching out a volume . . . of foul, lurid, red-hot, malignant smoke . . . while behind it (a cold gray moon looking down on it), slow, sad, and majestic, follows the brave old ship, with death, as it were, written on her." Such sentimentality was not in Turner's nature. If we look at his painting dispassionately, we can see that he wished to focus our awareness on the tug. Turner has given the proud steamer lines of grace and beauty, as she slides through the still river like a black swan, towing the dim hulk of the warship. The calm of sunset suggest to the spectator a mood of tranquil melancholy, but it also suggests the end of an era. Back to Top |
My half finished painting from the demonstration 
