Peace Burial at Sea

Joseph Mallord William Turner

Contemporary-Art.org
Keywords: PeaceBurialSea

Work Overview

Peace - Burial at Sea
ARTIST Joseph Mallord William Turner
MEDIUM Oil paint on canvas
DIMENSIONS Support: 870 x 867 mm
framed: 1110 x 1108 x 120 mm
COLLECTION Tate


Peace shows the burial at sea of Turner’s friend, the artist David Wilkie. The cool palette and saturated blacks create a striking contrast to its pair, War, hung alongside, and convey the calm of Wilkie’s dignified death, compared to Napoleon’s disgrace. The two titles War and Peace are illustrated as abstract concepts, via tone and colour, rather than as actual events. Both works were roundly criticised at the time for their lack of finishing.