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Slave Ship (Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead and Dying, Typhoon Coming On)
1840
The blazing sea first attracts the eye; then the human suffering in the foreground makes that beauty unbearable. Looking becomes a moral problem.
Artist field note
J.M.W. Turner
Light makes the solid world unstable.
Appears inUnited Kingdom
The five in one idea
Turner used light and weather to unsettle the apparent solidity of ships, cities and machines, making landscape carry history as well as sensation.