Joseph Mallord William Turner
The Victorian era famously saw the rise of steam power. British engineers had been experimenting with the design of steam engines from as early as 1784; by the time of this painting, exciting advances had been made and steam-powered locomotives were becoming part of daily life and indeed, part of the landscape.
Rain, Steam and Speed captures the sense of excitement that must have swept through the Victorian era as ideas of faster travel across Britain became a reality. It also speaks of this phenomenon as though it were a moment of true creation, the landscape bearing witness to the birth of a new period in which metal monoliths, slick with rain, were hurled through it, unstoppable in terms of speed, but also in terms of cultural progress. The train emerges out of its own miasma slipping effortlessly along the viaduct. In contrast to the ferocity of its motion, a small fishing boat to the bottom left of the painting sits relatively motionless on the water as clouds of steam billow down and begin to obscure it. The figures in the boat, the dancing girls on the riverbank, and the hare scattered on the tracks in front of the train perhaps represent the continuance of a daily life that is now forever changed.
Attending the Royal Academy of Arts at age 14, Turner’s talent was spotted early. During his career he came to be recognized as an artistic genius, described by the English art critic John Ruskin as an artist who could "stirringly and truthfully measure the moods of nature." It is his particular talent for capturing this mood that seduces any viewer of his paintings: through his ability to paint those aspects of a landscape that have no corporal substance, for example light, motion, or atmosphere, he conveys to us that which seems impossible without seeing it with your own eyes.
- Sarah Mills
P.S. Read here about Victorian feminists and their supernatural powers! And here is everything you should know about the Victorians!