Turner Worldwide text

Turner exhibited ‘Fisherman Upon A Lee-Shore In Squally Weather’ at the Royal Academy in 1802 when he was 27. In the painting he emphasises the drama and danger of the scene as the fisherman battle to launch their vessel against the heavy winds. Turner uses tone to increase the drama and bright sunlight appears through the stormy clouds lighting the waves. Storms and shipwrecks could show men battling against the elements and the calm after the storm could show the beauty and power of nature. The critic John Ruskin argued that in painting rivers or seas, storm or calm, surface or depth, Turner had no equal among his contemporaries or even his predecessors in the history of art.

Text kindly provided by owning institution 2003