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For the Japanese film, see The Slave Ship (film).

The Slave Ship, originally titled Slavers Throwing overboard the Dead and Dying—Typhoon coming on, is a painting by the British artist J. M. W. Turner, first exhibited in 1840. Measuring 35+3⁄4 in × 48+1⁄4 in (91 cm × 123 cm) in oil on canvas, it is now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. In this classic example of a Romantic maritime painting, Turner depicts a ship, visible in the background, sailing through a tumultuous sea of churning water and leaving scattered human forms floating in its wake. J.M.W. Turner was inspired to paint The Slave Ship in 1840 after reading The History and Abolition of the Slave Trade by Thomas Clarkson. The events inspiring this image reveal the political motivates that situate its exhibition in the midst of an international abolitionist campaign. While the work is largely appraised for its spectacular atmospheric effects, there are conflicting opinions over whether this aestheticizes the jarring subject matter or enhances it.

The Slave Ship
Slavers Throwing overboard the Dead and Dying—Typhoon coming on
Artist	J. M. W. Turner
Year	1840
Medium	Oil on canvas
Dimensions	90.8 cm × 122.6 cm (35.7 in × 48.3 in)
Location	Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Background

Historical Background

In 1781, the captain of a slave ship inbound to Jamaica, the Zong, had ordered 132 slaves to be shackled and thrown overboard when drinking water was running low so that insurance payments could be collected. Insurance money could not be collected if the slaves had simply passed due to natural causes. This incident went to court, and the trial that ensued gained public attention growing sentiment behind the demand for slavery abolition. Although the trial was deemed to be inconclusive, it was a pivotal catalyst in the movement towards British abolition and a moment that would eventually inspire Turner to portray in The Slave Ship to further this abolition movement internationally.

While the first organized British abolition movement was started in 1727, the slave trade was not officially abolished until 1807 in Britain, and 1838 in all remaining British colonies. Universal abolition was then at the center of politics following Britain's reform. Motives for the movement were centrally humanitarian, but economic incentives also incited a desire to terminate this commercial act in competing countries.

J.M.W. Turner

J.M.W. Turner was a well-known 19th century landscape painter born in London in 1775, who was highly regarded for his innovations in experimenting with abstraction. His training in the arts was extensive - he started studying at the Royal Academy at only the age of fourteen. He gained additional experience in practicing topographical drawings and using watercolors working under Dr. Thomas Monro, a physician and alienist, developing his interest in landscapes and notorious application of colors.

Due to his liberal beliefs and interest in current events, Turner was directly exposed to the campaigns and publications of the Anti-Slavery Society which inevitably shaped his abolitionist beliefs . As an abolitionist, J.M.W. Turner was passionate about contributing to the slavery resistance campaigns in international regions, such as in the United States. The first documented sign of Turner's artistic contribution to the anti-slavery movement occurred in 1828 when we dedicated an engraving of his painting The Deluge to a well known abolitionist, John Joshua Proby. Twelve years later, after being further informed about the Zong incident in the The History and Abolition of the Slave Trade by Thomas Clarkson, J.M.W. Turner was inspired to depict these horrific events in his piece The Slave Ship.

Exhibition at The Royal Academy of Arts

In 1840, two important international anti-slavery conventions were held in London, a region that had by that time achieved slavery emancipation: "The General Anti-Slavery Society" and "Society of the Extinction of the Slave Trade and the Civilization of Africa." Turner coincided the exhibition of The Slave Ship with these conventions at the Royal Academy of Arts. This public display of a horrific event reminding viewers of Britain's past was intended to evoke a response to the inhumane slave trade still occurring at that time in all parts of the world. Given the context of its initial exhibition, the objective for a political call for action is evident.

When Turner exhibited this picture at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1840 he paired it with the following extract from his unfinished and unpublished poem Fallacies of Hope (1812) :

"Aloft all hands, strike the top-masts and belay;

Yon angry setting sun and fierce-edged clouds

Declare the Typhon's coming.

Before it sweeps your decks, throw overboard

The dead and dying – ne'er heed their chains

Hope, Hope, fallacious Hope!

Where is thy market now?"

The Painting

Identifying the Subject Matter

The first impression that the painting creates is of a brilliant colorful and vibrant sunset over a stormy sea, which is an indication of an approaching typhoon. This ominous typhoon is further indicated by an approaching dramatized storm cloud, creeping into the visible space from the left, with its rich colors sprawling towards unstained sky. Upon closer inspection one can discern a ship sailing off into the distance. This ship is identifiable with the fast vessels of those used by slavers to escape navy patrollers, characterized by its "low, lean lines and clipper bow" that Turner makes evident by the outline of the ship in the distance. The masts of the ship are red, matching the blood-red color of the sky and the sickly copper color of the water, which serves to blur the lines between the ocean and sky, orchestrating a disoriented perspective of the spectacle. The ship's sails are furled, revealing that it is preparing for the typhoon.

In the right corner of the foreground, a single dark-skinned leg jets out of the water with an iron chain locked around its ankle. It can be assumed the figure is a nude female, as a faint illustration of bare breasts reside at the very bottom of the image under the leg. A chaotic swarm of seagulls and fish surrounds the leg, as though they are consuming the woman; one fish in particular is shown approaching the frenzy with its moth wide open. This violence is enhanced by spare red blotches around the head of the fish, indicating blood. Smaller dark limbs project from the stormy seas on the left, surrounded by loose chains, alluding to the numerous other slaves who were thrown off the ship as well and left to drown. Tails of fish swimming in the water around the drowning slaves can be observed augmenting the scene's turmoil.

Turner was gained inspiration for the visual details of the piece from a poem by ...

Artistic Style

Consistent with Turner's emphasis on color in many of his other works, the painting's central focus is on the interactions of various colors creating an intense atmospheric effect. Few defined brush strokes appear in the painting, and objects, colours, and figures become indistinct. Rather, objects are defined by their colors in the painting, and some objects, like the bodies of the slaves and the incoming storm, have no real border at all, being solely defined by the contrast with the pigments around them. The most prominent colours are the red of the sunset which encroaches into the water and ship as well, and the maroon of the bodies and hands of the slaves. This representation of the landscape is characteristic of Turner's painterly style, as he commonly over-exaggerates colors and abstracts details to make them more fluid and sensational, evoking an emotional response from the viewer. At the pinnacle of his career, Turner's style focused on minimizing the elements of a landscape and abstracting details with indistinct forms and colors.

Analysis and Interpretation

Analysis

Turner's emphasis on colour rather than design is typical of many Romantic works of the time. The indistinct shapes and the pervasiveness of the sunset's blood-red colour serve to convey a focus on nature and illustrate the idea that nature is superior to man. This notion is more apparent due to the fact that the actual Zong incident didn't happen during a storm, but rather in calm waters. Turner decisively included the elements of an ensuing typhoon during a fierce sunset to append the allegorical themes of the piece, as they relate to the atrocities of slave trading. Other colors in the painting, such as the cool blue of the ocean and the black caps of the water, bring the ocean's thrashing movement to life and give the viewer a sense of the cataclysmic nature of the scene. The compositional choice to portray the jettisoned slaves on the margins and minuscule in size and the slave ship in the distant background, partially concealed by the hazy atmosphere, in favor of the mesmerizing color work of the sunset and stirring ocean further serve to decrease the emphasis on humanity and transfer it to the overwhelming power of nature.

The Sublime

By placing the emphasis on nature rather than on figures or objects, Turner evokes the concept of the "sublime", coined by Edmund Burke. The idea of the sublime is of the utter powerlessness and terror of humanity in the face of nature; by dramatising the strength of the waves and sun, Turner uses The Slave Ship to encapsulate, perfectly, Burke's definition of the term. Turner's decision to paint the work with a series of quick, frenzied brush strokes rather than carefully defined lines adds to the intensity of the painting, serving to make the viewer feel even more overwhelmed. This abstracted depiction of the landscape dramatizes the sheer power of nature, encapsulating the attention of the viewer and reducing the actual identifying details of the Zong incident. The juxtaposition between the dynamic vivid colors of the storm moving across the an indistinctive and bright sky evokes an overpowering expression of nature's authority and agency. Disorientation is created by the irregular diagonal and overlapping currents of the sea which indistinctly blends into the dark red hues at the atmosphere's horizon. This makes the viewer feel as though they are placed directly in the open sea's powerful and unstable entropy themselves. Though the painting's size is relatively small compared to many Romantic landscape paintings, it still captivates the viewer in arguably a more powerful way.

Turner also demonstrates sublime elements through the terror and violence of the slaves drowning in the foreground of the piece. This terror is enhanced by the hues of red that surround the flailing limbs and the vicious sea creatures that prey on the suffering victims. The dispersed objects and disfigured bodies floating around the violent waves contributes to the visible chaos of the scene.

Interpretations

These sublime effects in combination with the subject matter of The Slave Ship has elicited various explanations behind the intention of these stylistic choices. One of which is that the incoming typhoon is a symbol of impeding divine retribution on the slave trade's immorality. This sentiment is supported visually in The Slave Ship by the daunting oncoming typhoon, overshadowing the distant spaceship. This interpretation is supported by the period's abolitionist poetry, that includes this divine intervention as a common theme on the inevitable doom of slave trading. Thomas Day's poem, The Dying Slave, is a representative example of the common tone that these poems at the time shared, which most likely influenced Turner's interpretive vision of the Zong incident:

"Thanks righteous God! - Revenge shall yet be mine;

Yon flashing lightning gave the dreadful sign,

I see the flames of heavenly anger hurl'd

I hear your thunders shake a guilty world

The time has come the fated hour is nigh,

When guiltless blood shall penetrate the sky

For Africa triumphs - his avenging rage

No tears can soften, and no blood assuage.

He smites the trembling waves, and at the shock

Their fleets are dash'd upon a rock.

He waves his flaming dart, and o'er their plains

In mournful silence, Desolation reigns."

Another peculiar interpretation is the concept that the slave ship that jettisoned the slaves is not the one depicted in the distance, but rather it is the viewer who is in the perspective of it. The original title of the painting, Slavers Throwing overboard the Dead and Dying—Typhoon coming on, and the verses of Fallacies of Hope that it is paired with are telling indicators of the events leading up to the scene depicted in the piece. Accordingly, the context of the scene includes the arrival of a typhoon, provoking the captains of the Zong to "throw overboard / the dead and dying - ne'er heed their chains," as described in the poem. However, the actual depiction of the ensuing scene provides "ontological uncertainty," as the visible details are inconsistent with the supposed sequence of events. For instance, the drowning slaves lie at the forefront of the scene, while the slave ship depicted is off in the far distance. If this image is supposed to represent the scene directly following the captain overthrowing the dead and dying, which is supported by the title, poem, and observable metal chains still sitting atop the water's surface, this spacial positioning would not be feasible. Therefore, it would be logical that the viewer is actually the slave ship, inciting this piece to provoke a new profound empathetic response.

In addition, some viewers have argued that The Slave Ship actually represents Turner's reaction to the Industrial Revolution. The painting might be viewed as an allegory against the exploitation of slaves and other human labour in favour of machines and economic advancement, represented by the coming storm engulfing the cruel captain. However, the storm could also be viewed as a representation of nature's dominance over man and of the ultimate futility in trying to industrialise and advance society.

Reception and Criticism

When The Slave Ship was first displayed at Royal Academy of Arts in 1840, it attracted the attention of harsh critics who were dismayed by the horrific subject matter and abstracted style. For instance, one famous review by Thackeray poses the rhetorical question, "Is the painting sublime or ridiculous? Indeed I don't know which." Others harped on his trifling use of color and fixation on nature's devastation.

After John Ruskin was gifted the paining by his father in 1844, he wrote a word essay published in Modern Painters which detailed his emotional response and appreciation for the work. This passage became famous and largely influenced the public's sentiment around it. His writing places the viewer directly in front of the painting, charging an emotional response as he describes the intense feelings the sublimity of this piece invokes. As a result of him interpreting a reaction to the scene for the reader, the actual painting was not necessarily needed to be seen for people to experience it. His celebration of the piece is evident as he writes, "If I were reduced to rest Turner's immortality upon any single work, I should choose this." Ruskin did have his own critics though; most notably, Mark Twain. In A Tramp Abroad, Volume 1, Chapter XXIV, he declaimed:

“ What a red rag is to a bull, Turner's "Slave Ship" was to me, before I studied art. Mr. Ruskin is educated in art up to a point where that picture throws him into as mad an ecstasy of pleasure as it used to throw me into one of rage, last year, when I was ignorant. His cultivation enables him—and me, now—to see water in that glaring yellow mud, and natural effects in those lurid explosions of mixed smoke and flame, and crimson sunset glories; it reconciles him—and me, now—to the floating of iron cable-chains and other unfloatable things; it reconciles us to fishes swimming around on top of the mud—I mean the water. The most of the picture is a manifest impossibility—that is to say, a lie; and only rigid cultivation can enable a man to find truth in a lie. ”

Ruskin eventually sold the painting in 1872 to be exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Arts in New York, where it sparked public interest after Ruskin's publication, and became highly regarded for its beautiful atmospheric effects. However, in effect of this attention to solely the aestheticism of the piece over the subject matter, this reaction also generated backlash among critics. As one New York Times critic put it, "It is the great artists vision of a slaver in peril at sea that the average art pilgrim looks for. He finds only a miracle of light and color."

After The Slave Ship was put on auction in 1876, Alice Hooper purchased it and put it on display at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, where it is displayed today. The painting was featured independently in the main gallery of the museum and accompanied by handouts of Ruskin's famous essay and a museum curated description that related the visible attributes of the piece with the relevant history of slave trade and the abolitionist context that underlies it. As educated viewers gained a greater understanding of the historic and ethical themes that Turner's painting attempts to allude to through his painterly style, this led to different interpretations on whether the aesthetic execution of the horrors of the incident is appropriate.

Ethical Dilemma of Aestheticizing

As demonstrated by the general response to the piece when exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the aestheticism of the landscape and marginalization of identifying details of the Zong incident runs the risk of the viewer overlooking its historical reference entirely. Many critics since have addressed this dilemma, discussing whether the aesthetic effects of The Slave Ship interferes with the subject matter or appropriately augments it. Those who believe the piece's style reinforces the alluding scene argue the sublime features of the overpowering ocean and oncoming typhoon articulate the symbolic destruction of the slave ship and emphasizes the horrors of slave trade. The compositional layout of the figures at the forefront does not dismiss the subject matter, but rather forces the viewer to acknowledge the drowning slaves while intuitively recognizing the ship cast off to the distance is to blame. As the art critic and professor George Landow explains, "the very closeness of the dying slaves to the spectator [incites the] recognition that the nature which will justly punish the ship is the same nature that is already unjustly devouring the ship's innocent." Therefore, the atmospheric effects heightens this daunting premonition that condemns the slave ship, and thus slave trading entirely.

On the other hand, some critics argue the aestheticizing of the horrific scene dominates the viewer's attention, and appropriates the tragic event for artistic pleasure. One critic, Tobias Döring, explains "the terrors of the [slave] trade have become transfigured as aesthetic objects produced for the delegation fo spectators [and] establishing covert complicity between terror and the connoisseur." Another critic, Sarah Fulford concurs with this position, claiming the dying slaves are completely disregarded in order to "aestheticize the horror of slavery in a moment of sublimity." She goes even further in her argument, stating that the very nature of commercializing art depicting slave victims aligns with the actual act of trading slaves. From this perspective, the aestheticizing of the scene is synonymous to profiting off of slavery.

The painting was the subject of an extended poetic sequence or verse novel by David Dabydeen, Turner (1994; reissued 2002).

External links

• Artchive—large image
• Turner's Slave Ship