The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich [Video]

In recent years, maritime art has become an increasingly respected genre as large droves of fine art lovers have grown to appreciate the powerful and dangerous beauty that many artists capture on the canvas. The expansiveness of the open seas has a poetry all its own, making this subject an easy one to take some artistic license with.

At the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, a southeastern district of London, one of the most beloved British painters of maritime art is getting his first ever exhibition. JMW Turner, whose canvases depict historical scenes such as the famed Battle of Trafalgar as well as other oceanic scenes, is the main subject of the museum’s “Turner & the Sea” exhibition.

The exhibition covers a wide range of his career and includes both the first painting he ever showed publicly in 1797 as well as his final exhibited piece, The Wreck Buoy, which was first shown in 1849. Turner was a tempestuous soul, and his art mirrored this fact completely. The National Maritime Museum only owns one Turner piece in the exhibit, but the piece, Turner’s only royal commission, is massive and is one of his most famous depictions of the naval battle for Trafalgar.

Many of the pieces involved in the exhibition are on loan from other galleries and collections in the United States and England. Among these are Britain’s Royal Collection, the National Gallery, New York’s Metropolitan Museum and many private collections from the U.S. and the European continent as well. After a number of smaller Turner exhibition which have taken place over the past two years, this exhibition does a great job of incorporating elements from these previous shows to create a truly blockbuster experience surrounding the work of JMW Turner.

The dramatic and ever-changing nature of the seas is just part of what inspires us here at Windjammer Arts. From JMW Turner to the other luminaries of the maritime art world, we’re always excited to hear about more exposure for this genre. Take a look through the galleries on this website to see what kinds of artwork you can purchase for your home or office today.

*Video courtesy of ArtHistoryLuv