Sunset on a calm ocean, rendered in loose brushstrokes, old ships on the left, their reflections shimmer in the water.　
Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

The sunset light glows from yellows into deep orange, enveloping the entire painting in warmth. The sun peaks out through an orange cloud on the right, above the steel-blue colored horizon. The water is still enough to record the reflection of the brown ship with smoke stack on left, behind it a larger ship with sails down looms behind it as the sun gives it a burst of fading bright light. A crescent sliver of a moon peaks through soft purple clouds in the left corner against a soft blue sky, casting a silver ribbon reflection on the water below.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1965.445
People
Thomas Charles Farrer, British (London, England 1839 - 1891 London, England)
After Joseph Mallord William Turner, British (London, England 1775 - 1851 Chelsea, England)
Title
The Fighting "Temeraire," tugged to her Last Berth to be Broken Up, after Turner
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
c. 1860
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/311566

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
60.6 x 91 cm (23 7/8 x 35 13/16 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • inscription: Inscription: The Fighting Temeraire/tugged to her last berth to be broken /up "the flag which braved the battle and the breeze/no longer owns her"/ Copy from Turner by T. C. Farrer/ the property of the artist/ 52nd St. bet. 11th and 12th Aves./New York City

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Meta and Paul J. Sachs; their bequest to the Fogg Art Museum, 1965.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Meta and Paul J. Sachs
Accession Year
1965
Object Number
1965.445
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., Virginia Anderson, Melissa Renn, and Susan C. Ricci, The Last Ruskinians: Charles Eliot Norton, Charles Herbert Moore, and Their Circle, exh. cat., Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2007), p. 16, fig. 2
  • Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., Virginia Anderson, and Kimberly Orcutt, ed., American Paintings at Harvard, Volume Two, Paintings, Drawings, Pastels and Stained Glass by Artists Born 1826-1856, Harvard Art Museums and Yale University Press (U.S.) (Cambridge, MA and New Haven, CT, 2008), p. 103-04, cat. 69, ill. p. 103
  • Sophie Lynford, Painting Dissent: Art, Ethics, and the American Pre-Raphaelites, Princeton University Press (Princeton/Oxford, 2022), p. 197, fig. 98

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu