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Joseph Mallord William Turner, 'Rain, Steam, and Speed - The Great Western Railway', 1844
About the work
Overview
A steam engine comes towards us as it crosses the Maidenhead Railway Bridge in the rain. Designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the bridge was completed in 1838. We are looking east towards London as the train heads to the west. The exaggeratedly abrupt foreshortening of the viaduct, which our eye follows to the horizon, suggests the speed with which the train bursts into view through the rain. Turner lightly brushed in a hare roughly midway along the rail track to represent the speed of the natural world in contrast to the mechanised speed of the engine. The animal is now invisible as the paint has become transparent with age, but it can be seen in an 1859 engraving of the painting.
Turner frequently painted scenes of contemporary life and was particularly interested in industry and technology. As he often used new forms of transport, including steam trains, it is unlikely that the painting is a rejection of modernity. Instead, he saw both the train and the bridge as subjects worthy of being painted.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- Rain, Steam, and Speed - The Great Western Railway
- Artist dates
- 1775 - 1851
- Date made
- 1844
- Medium and support
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 91 × 121.8 cm
- Acquisition credit
- Turner Bequest, 1856
- Inventory number
- NG538
- Location
- Room 40
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Previous owners
- Frame
- 19th-century French Frame
Provenance
Turner Bequest 1856.
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Judy Egerton, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The British Paintings’, London 2000; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Exhibition history
-
2014Late Turner: Painting Set FreeTate Britain10 September 2014 - 25 January 2015
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2019The Art of Innovation: from Enlightenment to Dark MatterScience Museum24 September 2019 - 24 January 2020
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2020Turner's Modern WorldTate Britain28 October 2020 - 12 September 2021
Bibliography
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1844J.G. Kohl, England, Wales and Scotland, London 1844
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1844W.M. Thackeray, 'May Gambols; or, Titmarsh in the Picture Galleries', Fraser's Magazine, 1844, pp. 712-3
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1846J.C. Bourne, History and Description of the Great Western Railway, London 1846
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1848C. Dickens, Dombey and Son, London 1848
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1850F.B. Head, Stokers and Pokers; or, the London and North-western Railway, the Electric Telegraph, and the Railway Clearing-House, London 1850
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1857R.N. Wornum, Descriptive and Historical Catalogue of the Pictures in the National Gallery, with Biographical Notices of the Painters: British School, London 1857
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1860G. Measom, The Official Illustrated Guide to the Great Western Railway, London 1860
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1860The Poetical Works of James Thomson, London 1860
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1877T. Gautier, History of Romanticism, Paris 1877
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1878C. Monkhouse, The Turner Gallery, London 1878
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1903J. Ruskin, Modern Painters, eds E.T. Cook and A. Wedderburn, The Works of John Ruskin, 39 vols, London 1903
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1910A.J. Finberg, Turner's Sketches and Drawings, London 1910
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1914G.D. Leslie, The Inner Life of the Royal Academy, London 1914
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1926A.M.W. Stirling, The Richmond Papers, London 1926
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1946Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: British School, London 1946
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1946M. Davies, Paintings and Drawings on the Backs of National Gallery Pictures, London 1946
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1954E. de Selincourt and H. Darbishire, The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, vol. 3, Miscellaneous Sonnets, Oxford 1954
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1959Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: British School, 2nd edn (revised), London 1959
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1964E.T. MacDermot, History of the Great Western Railway, London 1964
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1966J. Lindsay, Turner: His Life and Work, London 1966
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1969J. Gage, Colour in Turner: Poetry and Truth, London 1969
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1969D. Hirsch, The World of Turner, New York 1969
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1969G. Reynolds, Turner, London 1969
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1972J. Gage, Turner's Rain, Steam and Speed, London 1972
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1973D. St. J. Thomas, Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain:the West Country, Newton Abbot 1973
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1973J. Gage, 'Gautier, Turner and John Martin', The Burlington Magazine, CXV/842, 1973
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1974J. Pudney, Brunel and His World, London 1974
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1974A.M. Holcomb, 'The Bridge in the Middle Distance: Symbolic Elements in Romantic Landscape', Art Quarterly, XXXVII, 1974, pp. 31-58
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1980E. Bilardello, 'L'astrattismo: Percorso e genesi', Storia dell'arte, 38-40, 1980, pp. 393-402
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1981W. Gaunt, Turner, Oxford 1981
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1984M. Butlin and E. Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, R.A., New Haven 1984
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1986J. McCoubrey, 'Time's Railway: Turner and the Great Western', Turner Studies, VI/1, 1986, pp. 33-9
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1987J. Gage, J.M.W. Turner: 'A Wonderful Range of Mind', New Haven 1987
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1987The Turner Collection in the Clore Gallery: An Illustrated Guide, London 1987
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1987A. Wilton, Turner in his Time, London 1987
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1988G. Finley, 'Turner and the Steam Revolution', Gazette des beaux-arts, CXII, 1988, pp. 19-30
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1988R.K. Wallace, 'The Antarctic Sources for Turner's 1846 Whaling Oils', Turner Studies, VIII/1, 1988
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1989O. Bätschmann, Entfernung der Natur, Cologne 1989
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1989A. Lyles and D. Perkins, Colour into Line: Turner and the Art of Engraving, (exh. cat. Tate Gallery, 4 October 1989 - 21 January 1990), London 1989
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1990S. Ginzburg, Turner, New York 1990
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1990L. Herrmann, Turner Prints: The Engraved Work of J.M.W. Turner, Oxford 1990
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1990E. Shanes, Turner: The Masterworks, London 1990
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1991M. Bockemühl, J.M.W. Turner 1775-1851, Cologne 1991
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1991J. Simmons, The Victorian Railway, London 1991
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1992M. Davies, Turner as Professor: The Artist and Linear Perspective (exh. cat. Tate Gallery, 7 October 1992 - 31 January 1993), London 1992
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1993D. Hill, Turner on the Thames: River Journeys in the Year 1805, London 1993
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1994E. Langmuir, The National Gallery Companion Guide, London 1994
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1995T. Raquejo, 'Imágenes poéticas de lo sublime: Equivalencias visuales de la retórica en la pintura de Turner', Academia, 88, 1995, pp. 419-44
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1997A. Bailey, Standing in the Sun: A Life of J.M.W. Turner, London 1997
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1997J. Hamilton, Turner: A Life, London 1997
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1997W.S. Rodner, J.M.W. Turner: Romantic Painter of the Industrial Revolution, Berkeley 1997
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1997I. Carter, 'Rain, Steam and What?', Oxford Art Journal, XX/2, 1997, pp. 3-12
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1998J. Egerton, The British School, London 1998
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1998J. Hamilton, Turner and the Scientists (exh. cat. Tate Gallery, 3 March - 21 June 1998), London 1998
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2000Egerton, Judy, National Gallery Catalogues: The British Paintings, revised edn, London 2000
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2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
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2004O. Meslay, Turner: L'incendie de la peinture, Paris 2004
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2022S. Avery-Quash and A. Lepine (eds), Fruits of the Spirit: Art from the Heart, London 2022
Frame
This is a nineteenth-century French fluted hollow frame, crafted in pinewood and from composition. The back edge is decorated with a double bead-and-reel and leaf pattern. The top moulding, positioned between two fillets, features an imbricated leaf-and-stick design, running from the centre. The corners of the fluted hollow are accentuated by acanthus leaves. Following a small fillet, there is a triple bead-and-reel motif, which transitions into a newly added sight moulding.
This frame was acquired in 1999 for Turner’s Rain, Steam, and Speed. Although the frame has been restored, much of the original gilding is preserved.
About this record
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.
Images
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