J M W Turner Rain Steam and Speed Train Painting

Turner Painting Pays Homage to Brunel's Great Western Railway

Jul 29, 2009 Kathleen Duffy

Despite gloomy predictions about the railways, Turner's Rain Steam and Speed used an optimistic painterly language to depict the new mode of travel.

J M W Turner's painting Rain, Steam and Speed is a positive interpretation of Victorian railways in an era when Britain's new mode of transport was often seen as a threat to the Romantic notion of the countryside.

Great Western Railway

In 1844 Railway Mania reached its peak with the opening of the Bristol and Exeter extension of the Great Western Railway. Two hundred miles of West of England line was completed and that same year Turner displayed his Rain Steam and Speed: The Great Western Railway at the Royal Academy. It was a small, unpretentious picture which attracted little attention despite its original subject matter.

Romantic Artists and Victorian Railways

Most artists were indifferent to the new railways. Only architectural drawings and engravings in a few railway guide books were the exception. In fact, Romantic artists of all genres saw the dark side of the Railway Revolution.

Wordsworth was against the railways once he realised that the peace of the Lakes was threatened by the Kendal and Windermere Railway;
Ruskin, Turner’s champion, completely ignored Rain, Steam and Speed and stated that travelling by railway was not real travel but was like being sent to a place, like a parcel.
In Dombey & Son Dickens sees trains as an image of Death itself and in reality would experience a train crash.
Turner’s friend, the painter, John Martin, depicted the sublime, terrifying side of the Industrial Revolution in his huge canvases.

Turner’s Optimistic View of the Industrial Landscape

Despite similar apocalyptic interpretations of Rain, Steam and Speed, author John Gage (see reference, below) can see no evidence to support this opinion.

The hare which can be seen running in front of the engine is in no real danger from the speed of the train at this point, the crowds waving from the river bank show the public enthusiasm for passing trains and when the Bristol and Exeter line opened business in Exeter was suspended as thousands of people flocked into the streets whilst bands played. In addition the railway excursion was a joyful occasion for ordinary working people, opening up areas of the countryside hitherto unreachable.

Other reasons for Turner choosing to paint the Great Western are:

The Great Western was a huge achievement with a massive seven-foot guage
The setting is Brunel’s Maidenhead Railway Bridge, a triumph of engineering
Maidenhead Bridge is set amongst the Thames scenery that Turner loved
There were Royal connections. In 1843 Prince Albert travelled to Bristol by train to launch Brunel’s steamship, Great Britain.
The train is travelling towards Devon, opening up the picturesque county to travellers and it is also the scene of other Turner works
Speed was one of the train’s claims as a service and a year after the picture it would reach speeds of 43 mph, the fastest service.

The Tradition of Turner's Rain Steam and Speed

Rain, Steam and Speed is arguably not only a document, but primarily an allegory on the forces of nature. Drawing on the Baroque allegorical tradition which Turner knew so well and the emotive scumbling brushwork of Rembrandt, whom Turner admired deeply, the artist was able to depict the impression of speed and movement.

The French Recognise Turner

Pissarro and Monet, whilst in London, had seen Turner’s work. Their own works did little to replicate Turner’s experience, other than in subject matter but, despite this, Rain Steam and Speed was recognised by some French critics as a worthy experiment in abstract ideas in painting. Pissarro would later encourage his son, Lucien, to study this painting.

Today Rain, Steam and Speed is recognised as a major achievement of Turner’s late work, a painting that showed how great subjects could be depicted on a small scale, and that painters had a duty to painting itself, not just subject matter.

Source:

Turner: Rain, Steam Speed by John Gage (Allen Lane The Penguin Press, 1972)