Ship to Wreck - Florence and the Machine

Don't wreck your Ship...

The Fighting Temeraire, tugged to her last berth to be broken up is a painting by the English artist Joseph Mallord William Turner, painted in 1838. It depicts the 98-gun HMS Temeraire, one of the last ships to have played a role in the Battle of Trafalgar, being towed up the Thames by a paddle-wheel steam tug, towards its final berth in Rotherhithe to be broken up for scrap.

The painting hangs in the National Gallery, London, having been bequeathed to the nation by the artist in 1851, as part of the Turner Bequest. In a poll organised by BBC Radio 4's Today programme in 2005, it was voted the nation's favourite painting it was even featured in the movie Skyfall.

 

There’s a whole out with the old, in with the new theory that accompanies the painting, and Wiki has a great commentary if you are interested.

 

Anyway, it's always been one of my 'Go-to' things to see, if I have a spare moment when I'm in London. And I was there again this morning where the gallery was exceedingly busy, mostly with tourists, and got me thinking at just how many eyes have ever viewed this work.

 

It’s difficult to predict precisely how many people but the gallery attracts approximately 5-6 million visitors annually and since the painting is one of the most iconic works in the collection, a significant portion of these visitors must have seen it.

 

Multiply that number by the odd century or so and it could well be hundreds of millions. You see, people from far and wide come to see with their own eyes Turner's artistic magic.

 

Don't get me wrong as I did also see ‘An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump’

, 'Mr and Mrs Andrews' and 'The Stonemasons Yard' whilst I was there (Wright, Gainsborough and Canaletto would be proud of me) - I mean why wouldn't you see the nations’ favourite, as The Fighting Temeraire is the Bohemian Rhapsody in the Queen back catalogue, the Cullinan Diamond in the Coronation Crown and an ever-constant in a constantly changing world.

 

I first saw it when I was 18 or so and marvelled at it then and will continue to marvel at it for as many years I have to come. It's great that somethings never change and that we get tired of them.

 

You see the world is full of man-made wonder if you go looking for it. 

 

So I’d like to know what’s your point of reference – what’s your Fighting Temeraire?

1,201 Marathons - 284 Ultras - 9 GWR - 17 MDS - 1 Life