Georgia Amick

Phillips

English 101

8 Mar. 2016

J.M.W. Turner, "The Slave Ship", 1840

JMW Turner painted "The Slave Ship" in 1824.  It was originally called "Slavers throwing overboard the dead and the dying  --  Typhoon coming on", however for the sake of saving time it was changed to "The Slave Ship".  Depicted in the painting is a ship sailing away in turbulent waters during a sunset, with human limbs and chains floating in the wake of the vessel.  Turner uses proportioning, specific painting style, his use of colors and historical background to force the viewers of "The Slave Ship" to develop an emotional and thoughtful connection with the serious topic of slave trade within Europe.    

It is believed that the inspiration for the theme of the painting was created from the news of the Spanish slave ship, Zong.  In 1781, Zong and it's slavers had an outbreak of disease among the slaves on the vessel, the slaves whom they were bringing to Spain were not insured for dying from sickness, however they were for dying by an accident at sea.  So the slavers decided to throw the slaves over the side of the boat, chains and all.  This created suspicion in most peoples' minds when the boat returned, because all of the slaves, in the hull of the ship, managed to fall out and be lost at sea and yet the rest of the crewmembers were unharmed.  This was very big news and made a lot of the European headlines and resonated with most, even well into the 19th century (www.mfa.org) .  Also, by that time slave trading was frowned upon (not slavery yet, only slave trading) and Spain was one of the few remaining countries that were still going to different parts of Africa and taking these individuals to sell and trade to other nations.  So Spain was already being frowned upon for its continuation of slave trading after having a ban everywhere else, therefore it was fairly easy for this story to catch wind in the European press. 

Turner was a huge proponent to stop not only the business of slave trading but also to abolish slavery.  In 1840 Turner painted "The Slave Ship" after reading the book, The History and Abolition of the Slave Trade.  This book was his main inspiration for creating a painting that addressed the topic of stopping slave trade.  He painted it for the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, which he was a member of, and the history of the ship Zong was still a very memorable part of news and so was undoubtedly the motivation for the theme of the painting (Chu, 2015).  Using this historical background, the general public could have a prior knowledge and connection to the painting that increased the popularity of "The Slave Ship". 

When first glanced at, viewers of this image see a sunset over tumultuous waters with brewing clouds above.  The nature is the first thing seen by the audience, which is a theme in many of Turner's works (www.mfa.org).  "The Slave Ship" uses beautiful and powerful colors, such as reds and blues and other "steely" hues.  This starts the spectator off with a feeling of the power of nature, an unforgiving sea and a violent red sky that, when all combined, suppresses any hope for control by 'man'.

The sunset in the painting is done intentionally by Turner to signify the end of something.  In most of Turners' paintings, the sun is an indicator as to whether it is suppose to inspire hope or to represent the end or the death of something.  In "The Slave Ship" it represents the death of the slaves that had lost their lives on the ship, Zong.  Also, in a broader scope, all the slaves that had lost their lives through the business of slave trading.  On a more hopeful note, the viewer could also take the sun to mean the end of the slave trading business itself as this was a very powerful piece that not only became popular within the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, but also within the general public and other forms of media.  

Turner's way of painting nature as larger than man was because Turner believed landscapes were equally as important as historical paintings, he held a high regard for nature.  However, because this was a time of Neo-Classism, historical works were the only type of paintings that got a lot of fame. So Turner began what was known as Historicized Landscapes (Chu, 2015); which were these historical events depicted in an extremely small scale, where the landscapes were on a huge and overpowering measure.  These Historicized landscapes seemingly were meant to show that 'man' is small and insignificant, whether good or evil, in comparison to nature.

 It was also normal for paintings to not look like paintings within Neo-classical art, meaning they didn't show any brush strokes and they were very clean/defined subjects that there was no question as to what was going on in the painting.  However, with Turner's works, he has a very "painterly" style that shows brush strokes and no defined lines, which forces the viewer to imagine and give their own interpretation of the painting. "The Slave Ship" was probably one of his more forward works, but there is still a very obvious "painterly"-ness to it that makes the painting vague and undefined.  For example, the human limbs sticking out of the water seem to have other forms of sea-life swimming around the bodies, some people just interpret some of the fish as parts of the waves.  Those that see the fish see it as another horror that is depicted in the scene of these people being eaten after they were thrown overboard.  Those that don't see the fish could see it as extenuations of the rough seas, which still add to the depravity of the men that were responsible for this terrible crime.  

The ship in the painting is very small compared to the landscape but it is obviously sailing away from the bodies at the front of the painting.  Turner painted the ship as sailing away from the scene on purpose.  The Spanish ship represents this entity of disregard for human life, or possibly the entirety of the slave trade industry and what remained of it.  The boat is also blended in with the brewing and foreboding storm.  The blending of the ship with the storm could mean that the vessel was far away, or also because the viewer then associates the ship and/or the slave trade industry with this menacing storm, that it only causes death and disaster.  

The people that have been thrown overboard in the painting are the slaves.  The observer does not see their faces or even a whole body, only the arms and the legs popping up out of the sea with chains still attached.  This gives a very real sense of the awfulness of this event; the viewer is put in a position where they generate an  "us and them" approach.  Because the slaves are the only humans actually depicted in the scene it allows the spectator to identify with them, not the ominous and dark ship in the background fleeing the scene.  The hands grasping out of the water gives an aspect of the terror of the event to the viewers; the hands that are reaching out for something to save them but they get no relief.  Turner also gave a very light tone to the skin of the individuals that were drowning. Not to fit in or to try to devalue the African skin tones, but because it would further enforce identification with the victims by the viewers, which the audience of the piece were probably a vast majority of white individuals that were seeing this painting at the time of its release.  

This painting is hung within the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and located beside it is one of Turner's own poems. He wrote the poem for this piece, and also as a reaction to reading the book, The History and Abolition of the Slave Trade.  It is a poem referring to the scene of the painting, but also a poem that represents the inhumane treatment of people within slave trading as a whole.  The last two lines of the poem say, "Hope, Hope, fallacious hope! | Where is thy market now?".  These lines indicate that the heinous acts being committed, within this specific incident and by the entirety of slave trading, were depleting the hope of the world.  Those hopes were mistaken if there was still this type of industry that was allowed to continue doing crimes like this and other things similar to it.  The poem also reinforces that the fleeing ship is the antagonist of this image; that they are callous and greedy men who only care for their own lives.  This enhances further the general public probably wanting to side more with the slaves that are drowning in the water; likely encouraging more distain towards the slave trade.  

The painting is currently in Boston and Turner had originally painted it as a type of propaganda in order to try and finalize the extinction of slave trade within Europe and the Americas.  Turner felt strongly about abolishing slavery in its entirety and wanted to begin with the business aspect of it.  Turner was a Romantic artist, meaning he used the images he painted in order to suggest the "small-ness" of man.  That mankind could not conquer everything through knowledge and strength, especially not nature. It was in opposition to the enlightenment era that he found himself living in which considered mankind to be able to use sheer strength or his own pursuit of knowledge in order to overcome the other "powers of the world".  This painting is a Romantic style because nature makes up a majority of the frame, and Turner could have meant that to mean nature was just being nature; that the evilness of man is what is accentuated here.  Mankind is trying to conquer one another and destroy one another because of their own insignificant differences, nature does not care what those differences are and this painting puts that into perspective.

 Turner wanted to provide a powerful message through this image, but he also wanted to encourage personal interpretation of the work.  "The Slave Ship" was an artwork that used history, colors, proportioning, and painting style to give importance to the theme of the painting, which was helpful propaganda towards ending the slave trading business.   

References

J.M.W. Turner, "The Slave Ship", 1840

http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/slave-ship-slavers-throwing-overboard-the-dead-and-dying-typhoon-coming-on-31102

Petra ten-Doesschate Chu, "Nineteenth Century European Art",  2015; Pearson Prentice Hall.
