A painting a day · No. 21 of 38
The Fighting Temeraire
J. M. W. Turner (1775–1851)
1839 · Oil on canvas · The National Gallery, London
The story
HMS Temeraire fought at Trafalgar in 1805. In 1838 a small steam tug towed her up the Thames to be broken up for scrap. Turner painted the end of the age of sail.
Look closer
- The old warship is pale, like a ghost. The tug is black and belching smoke.
- The sun sets on the right; a thin moon rises on the left.
- Turner gave her masts and rigging. In reality they had already been taken down.
Did you know
It was voted Britain's greatest painting in a BBC Radio 4 poll in 2005, and it is on the back of the Bank of England £20 note.
Why we can show it
J. M. W. Turner died in 1851. UK copyright lasts for the artist’s life plus 70 years, so even under today’s rules this painting would have been free for anyone to show since 1922. The photograph is a faithful copy of a flat work, which creates no new copyright. We do not store the picture: it comes from Wikimedia Commons each time it is needed. More on this.