Rain, Steam and Speed – The Great Western Railway

Shown at the Royal Academy in 1844, this painting by Turner depicts a locomotive crossing the Maidenhead railway bridge over the Thames, in a damp landscape veiled by rain and mist. Rather than recording the machine with technical precision, the painter wanted to convey the sense of awe felt when a train approached at speed. Railways were still a novelty at the time. Many artists ignored them or considered them unfit for serious painting, but Turner made one the subject of a large oil canvas.

The composition is built on a diagonal. The tracks and the bridge run from the background toward the foreground, so the train seems to bear down on the viewer. In the distance, on the left, the older stone road bridge of the 1770s can be made out through the haze, setting the traditional ways of travel beside the new one. Small figures of farm workers and women appear in the fields. Some scholars read these scenes as a comment on how modern technology would unsettle rural life.

Lower right, a hare races along the rails. Turner had long used the hare as a classical emblem of natural speed, and here it is pitted against mechanical velocity. Interpretations vary: some see a contest between the two, others a warning about the threat industry posed to the natural world.

Technically the picture is striking. The locomotive is a dark, indistinct mass, with its glowing firebox the only bright point, while sky, smoke and water dissolve into a vaporous texture. Turner worked with stiff brushes and a palette knife, laying on thick impasto and letting paint catch on the ridges of the canvas. This approach departed from the smooth finish expected at the time and drew criticism, yet it anticipated much of the brushwork of the Impressionists.

Painter

J. M. W. Turner

Date

1844

Medium

oil paint, canvas

Dimensions

91 × 122 cm

Museum

National Gallery, London

Movement

Impressionism

Genre

landscape painting

Depicts

railway bridge, River Thames, vapor, Maidenhead Railway Bridge, rain, wind, locomotive

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