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Joseph Mallord William Turner (English, 1775–1851)
Disaster at Sea (also known as The Wreck of the Amphitrite), ca. 1833–35
Oil on canvas; 67 1/2 x 86 3/4 in. (171.5 x 220.5 cm)
Tate, London, Turner Bequest, 1856
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This unfinished canvas, which Turner never exhibited, has recently been convincingly identified as Turner's response to the destruction of the female convict ship Amphitrite off the coast of France in 1833, which resulted in the deaths of more than one hundred women and children. The topicality of Turner's subject recalls Géricault's Raft of the Medusa, which similarly records a contemporary atrocity. Turner likely saw Géricault's painting in London, where its exhibition in 1820 created a sensation.
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