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Joseph Mallord William Turner (English, 1775–1851)
Snow Storm—Steam Boat off a Harbour's Mouth Making Signals in Shallow Water, and Going by the Lead. The Author Was in this Storm on the Night the Ariel Left Harwich, exhibited 1842
Oil on canvas; 36 x 48 in. (91.4 x 121.9 cm)
Tate, London, Turner Bequest, 1856
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John Ruskin proclaimed this work to be "one of the very grandest statements of sea-motion, mist and light, that has ever been put on canvas, even by Turner." Turner's enigmatic title, which confers a documentary quality on the painting, has led scholars to search for a steamboat called Ariel and to consider whether the artist could have witnessed such a storm, as he claims. Turner, stung by the criticism the work received at the 1842 Royal Academy exhibition, allegedly responded, "I did not paint it to be understood, but I wished to show what such a scene was like."
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