The Slave Ship

"The Slave Ship" or "Slavers Throwing overboard the Dead and Dying—Typhoon coming on"[1] is a painting by the British artist J. M. W. Turner of a slave ship, first exhibited in 1840.

The subject of the painting is the practice of eighteenth century slave traders who would throw the dead and dying slaves overboard during the middle passage in the Atlantic Ocean in order that they might claim the insurance for drowning. Turner was inspired by two sources: by the Zong Massacre of slaves,[2] and by lines from James Thomson's The Seasons:[3]

Increasing still the Terrors of these Storms,
His Jaws horrific arm'd with threefold Fate,
Here dwells the direful Shark. Lur'd by the Scent
Of steaming Crowds, of rank Disease, and Death,
Behold! he rushing cuts the briny Flood,
Swift as the Gale can bear the Ship along;
And, from the Partners of the cruel Trade,
Which spoils unhappy Guinea of her Sons,
Demands his share of Prey, demands themselves.
The stormy Fate descend: one Death involves
Tyrants and Slaves; when strait, their mangled Limbs
Crashing at once, he dyes the purple Seas
With Gore, and riots in the vengeful Meal.
'Summer', ll.1013–25

By painting such an emotive subject Turner was perhaps attempting to assist in the abolitionist campaign, though by this date slavery had been abolished throughout the British Empire. The painting was widely admired for its use of colour and the way in which sea and sky merge around the distant ship. In the lower portion of the painting, hands of enslaved Africans can be seen still shackled. The painting is in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, US.[4]

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

Critics

Mark Twain noted that it reminded him of a "cat having a fit in a platter of tomatoes."[5]

Notes

  1. ^ Turner's title; originally "Typhon", then an English spelling of typhoon. [1][2]
  2. ^ http://www.mfa.org/collections/search_art.asp?recview=true&id=31102 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, US website.
  3. ^ James Thomson, 'The Seasons' ed. James Sambrook (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981) p.353.
  4. ^ J. M. W.Turner's Slave Ship
  5. ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=ZLkfAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA625&lpg=PA625&dq=mark+twain+turner+tomatoes&source=bl&ots=k3TpMUVHi5&sig=woAyN9h0s8MjIHA3wJw-togrgUc&hl=en&ei=LAoeTr2fNYyCsQPbwPi4DA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=mark%20twain%20turner%20tomatoes&f=false

References