The Slave Ship

1840 painting by J. M. W. Turner
the painting

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.

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.

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 colors 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." At the pinnacle of his career, Turner's style minimized the elements of a landscape and abstracted details through indistinct forms and colors.

When The Slave Ship was first displayed at Royal Academy of Arts in 1840, it attracted the attention of critics who were dismayed by the horrific subject matter and abstracted style. For instance, one famous review by William Makepeace Thackeray poses the rhetorical question, "Is the painting sublime or ridiculous? Indeed I don't know which." Others harped on Turner's use of color and fixation on nature's devastation. After John Ruskin was gifted the painting by his father in 1844, he wrote an essay published in Modern Painters which detailed his appreciation for the work. The text became famous and influenced the public's understanding of the painting. Ruskin's celebration of the piece is evident as he writes, "If I were reduced to rest Turner's immortality upon any single work, I should choose this." Ruskin eventually sold the painting in 1872 to be exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where it sparked public interest after Ruskin's publication, and became highly regarded for its atmospheric effects. However, in effect of this attention to solely the aestheticism of the piece over the subject matter, this reaction also generated backlash among critics. As one New York Times critic put it, "It is the great artists vision of a slaver in peril at sea that the average art pilgrim looks for. He finds only a miracle of light and color." After The Slave Ship was put on auction in 1876, Alice Hooper purchased it and put it on display at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, where it is displayed today. The painting was featured independently in the main gallery of the museum and accompanied by handouts of Ruskin's famous essay and a museum curated description that related the visible attributes of the piece to the history of the slave trade and the abolitionist context that underlies it.

As demonstrated by the general response to the piece when exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the aestheticism of the landscape and marginalisation of identifying details of the Zong incident could lead viewers to overlook its historical reference entirely. Many critics since have addressed this dilemma, discussing whether the aesthetic effects of The Slave Ship interfere with the subject matter or appropriately augments it. Those who believe the piece's style reinforces its message argue that the sublime features of the overpowering ocean and oncoming typhoon comment upon the horrors of the slave trade. According to this view, the configuration of the figures in the foreground forces the viewer to face the drowning slaves. As the art critic and professor George Landow explains, "the very closeness of the dying slaves to the spectator [incites the] recognition that the nature which will justly punish the ship is the same nature that is already unjustly devouring the ship's innocent." The atmospheric effects can also be interpreted as heightening the premonition of the slave ship's demise, and thus the abolition of slavery entirely. On the other hand, some critics argue that the aesthetic aspects of the scene dominate the viewer's attention, and the work appropriates the tragic event for artistic pleasure. One critic, Tobias Döring, argued that "the terrors of the [slave] trade have become transfigured as aesthetic objects produced for the delegation of spectators [and] establishing covert complicity between terror and the connoisseur."

In 2006 the painting was the focus of episode 5 in the eight part BBC TV mini series Simon Schama's Power of Art, broadcast by BBC Two. In 2018, the unpublished poem extract Turner used to accompany the painting was used as the introduction to Lupe Fiasco's 2018 album Drogas Wave. The poem extract is read aloud on the opening track "In the Event of a Typhoon".