Description
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.
He used considerable artistic licence in the painting, which had a symbolic meaning that his first audience immediately appreciated. 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. 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.
