Original artwork description:

On the face of it a painting of a Trafalgar-era, worn-out wooden warship being towed to a breakers yard by a tramp-steamer doesn't sound too promising, but as JMW Turner illustrates any subject can be made palatable with a gloriously peachy sunset lingering in the background. In Edvard Munch's 'The Scream' a colourful histrionic twilight adds a touch of gaiety to a black-robed skeletal mummy wandering around representing the 'universal anxiety of modern humanity'. Rubens should have considered this device in his 'Massacre of the Innocents'. There is doubt about the authenticity of the sunset in JMW Turner's 'The Fighting Temeraire' however. The scene is looking toward the Thames estuary, ie, eastward - a highly unusual direction for the sun to set. Thus this artist has no reservations about using the artistic licence given to him by God (No: PA/8378/34-INT) to give 'The Fighting Temeraire' even less credibility in the form of stripes and grids courtesy of Lichtenstein and Mondrian.

Materials used:

Acrylics

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