Art Institute of Chicago

Fishing Boats with Hucksters Bargaining for Fish

Joseph Mallord William Turner (English, 1775–1851)

Date

1837–38

Medium

Oil on canvas

Culture

England

Department

Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

English artist J. M. W. Turner was fascinated by the sea. Here, a crowded fishing boat rides atop rolling, tumultuous waves. A smaller boat occupied by hucksters, or peddlers, navigates the churning waters as it approaches the larger vessel to negotiate the buying of fish to sell back at port. A steamship chugs along in the background, signaling the new industrial age. This painting dates from a period when the artist was increasingly interested in atmospheric drama and the effects of light, exemplified here by the turbulent storm brewing in the background. The sunlit water in the foreground is dotted with a thick impasto, the heavy application of paint that results in painterly depth and surface texture. For this composition and others, Turner was inspired by the tradition of seventeenth-century Dutch marine painting and its leading painter, Willem van de Velde , whose work was popular in England. The subject itself and compositional elements such as the low horizon line are characteristic of earlier Dutch seascapes, but Turner cleverly laid claim to this painting by signing it on the white flag fluttering high on the mast of the fishing boat that pokes through to the sliver of clear blue sky.

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