The Slave Ship


The Slave Ship, originally titled Slavers Throwing overboard the Dead and Dying—Typhon coming on, is a painting by the British artist J. M. W. Turner, first exhibited at The Royal Academy of Arts in 1840.
Measuring in oil on canvas, it is now on display at 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. Turner was possibly moved to paint The Slave Ship after reading about the slave ship Zong in The History and Abolition of the Slave Trade by Thomas Clarkson, the second edition of which was published in 1839. The initial exhibition of the painting in 1840 coincided with international abolitionist campaigns. As the piece changed hands in subsequent years, it was subject to a wide array of conflicting interpretations. While the work is generally admired for its spectacular atmospheric effects, there are conflicting opinions about the relationship between its style and its subject matter.

Background

Historical background

In 1781, the captain of a slave ship inbound to Jamaica, the Zong, had ordered 132 slaves to be thrown overboard when drinking water was running low so that insurance payments could be collected; slaves who died of natural causes were not covered by insurance. This incident went to court, and the trial that ensued gained wide public attention, building support for the abolition of slavery. Although the trial was deemed to be inconclusive, it was a pivotal catalyst in the movement towards British abolition and a moment that later inspired Turner to portray the incident in The Slave Ship.
While the first organized British abolition movement was started in 1727, the slave trade in the British Empire was not officially abolished until 1807 with slavery itself abolished in 1833. 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 stylistic innovation. His training in the arts was extensive. He started studying at the Royal Academy at the age of fourteen, and gained additional experience in topographical drawings and watercolour working under Dr. Thomas Monro, a physician and alienist, developing his interest in landscapes and distinctive application of colours.
Due to his liberal beliefs and interest in current events, Turner was directly exposed to the campaigns and publications of the anti-slavery societies of his time, the Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery Throughout the British Dominions and the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, which inevitably shaped his abolitionist beliefs. As an abolitionist, 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 he dedicated an engraving of his painting The Deluge to a well known abolitionist, John Joshua Proby. Twelve years later, after possibly being informed about the Zong incident from reading The History and Abolition of the Slave Trade by Thomas Clarkson, as well as the Amistad rebellion and subsequent court case in the United States which was international news, 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: "The General Anti-Slavery Society" and "Society of the Extinction of the Slave Trade and the Civilization of Africa." Turner's exhibition of The Slave Ship at the Royal Academy of Arts coincided with these conventions. This public display of a horrific event reminding viewers of Britain's past was intended to evoke an emotional response to the inhumane slave trade still occurring at that time in other parts of the world. Given the context of its initial exhibition, the painting would likely have been interpreted as a political call to action.
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 :

Description

Subject matter

The first impression that the painting creates is of an enormous deep-red sunset over a stormy sea, 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 colours sprawling towards an unstained sky. Upon closer inspection one can discern a ship sailing off into the distance. This ship is identifiable as a type of fast vessel used by slavers to escape navy patrollers, characterized by its "low, lean lines and clipper bow." The masts of the ship are red, matching the blood-red colour of the sky and the sickly copper colour of the water, which serves to blur the lines between various objects in the painting. 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 juts 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 can be found 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 mouth 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 and left to drown. Tails of fish swimming in the water around the drowning slaves can be observed, augmenting the scene's turmoil.

Artistic style

Consistent with Turner's emphasis on colour in many of his other works, the painting's central focus is on the interactions of various colours. Few defined brush strokes appear in the painting, and objects, colours, and figures become indistinct. Objects are defined by colours rather than distinct lines, and some objects, like the human bodies in the water and the incoming storm, having no real border at all are 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, and the maroon of the bodies and hands of the slaves. This approach is characteristic of Turner's painterly style, in which he commonly exaggerates colours and omits details to make forms more fluid and sensational, eliciting an emotional response from the viewer. At the pinnacle of his career, Turner's style minimized the elements of a landscape and abstracted details through indistinct forms and colours.

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 illustrate the idea that nature is superior to man. Turner's intentions become more apparent when the painting is considered in relation to the circumstances of the actual Zong incident, which did not happen during a storm but in calm waters. Turner included the impending typhoon and sunset to comment on the atrocities of slave trading. Other colours 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, scaled down in size, and the slave ship in the distant background, partially concealed by the hazy atmosphere, in favor of the mesmerizing colour work of the sunset and stirring ocean, further serves 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" developed by Edmund Burke. The idea of the sublime is of the utter powerlessness and terror of humanity in the face of nature; by dramatizing the strength of the waves and sun, Turner uses The Slave Ship to encapsulate 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, capturing the attention of the viewer and reducing the identifying details of the Zong massacre. The dynamic, vivid colours of the storm moving across an indistinct and bright sky evoke nature's authority and agency. The irregular, diagonal, and overlapping currents of the sea which indistinctly blends into the dark red hues at the horizon create a disorienting effect. This makes the viewer feel as though they are placed directly in the open sea's powerful and unstable entropy.
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 contribute to the visible chaos of the scene.