Posted on 03/07/2009 1:45:17 PM PST by mojito
In the late summer of 1838, H.M.S. Temeraire, a once-glorious remnant of the Battle of Trafalgar of 1805, was towed up the Thames to the wharf at Rotherhithe, to be broken up and sold for her fittings and oaken timbers. J.M.W. Turner's painting of the doomed ship's final passage, in which he summoned her illustrious past by rechristening her the "Fighting Temeraire," never left his possession and became part of his bequest to the nation after his death in 1851 at age 76. Enshrined in the National Gallery in London since 1856 and embodying a nostalgic nation's memory of an age when it ruled the waves, Turner's canvas remains among his best-known and best-loved works. Even today, as scholars debate the meaning of its ambiguous but deeply stirring imagery, "Fighting Temeraire" elicits a charged emotional response.
Exactly 40 years before she met an ignominious end upriver, the Temeraire was launched to considerable fanfare at Chatham. A massive man-of-war of the Second Rate equipped with 98 guns (ships of the First Rate had 100 guns or more), vast stores of ammunition, three decks and a trio of towering masts, the Temeraire first served as flagship to the formidable Channel Fleet, a bulwark of Britain's maritime defense.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Art and history ping for you!
Vale, Albion.
Thanks for posting the painting directly to the thread.
I love Turner. He’s one of my favorite painters.
I just finished reading this article in the Wall St. Journal weekend edition and also lots of other wonderful articles on books and plays and culture.
We are THRILLED we subscribed to WSJ last month as we are not receiving it late in the mail as we thought, but for cheap price it is being delivered early same day to our driveway.
I strongly recommend people support Rupurt Murdock’s center to center right newspaper, especially as the economy is the most important topic in our lives now.
www.wsj.com
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