Rain, Steam and Speed: a longer look

Excellent morning at the National Gallery looking at Turner’s “Rain, Steam and Speed” led by Matthew Morgan. This was in their “A Longer Look” series.

The talk looked at where the picture sat in Turner’s career having been painted in 1844 when he was 77. We also discussed the elements of the picture, where it was, what the significance of that was, what the status of the railway was at the time and how it was viewed and what other pictures that it was displayed with at the Royal Academy were like. We then looked at how other artists at the time and later the Impressionists treated trains.

Then finally after some time looking at the picture itself we came back to discuss how it fitted into the idea of the sublime landscape.

I am only just really starting to look at Turner’s having found them rather a mass of grey and brown till now. This talk was really helpful in showing me how to look more carefully at the work and think of it in the context of its own time not ours. I want to do more now!

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