The Fighting Temeraire
J. M. W. Turner (1839)
In The Fighting Temeraire, J. M. W. Turner sets a <strong>ghostly man‑of‑war</strong> against a <strong>sooty steam tug</strong> under a blazing, emblematic sunset. The pale ship’s towering masts and slack rigging read like memory, while the tug’s black smoke cuts through the rigging where a flag once flew, signaling <strong>power passing from sail to steam</strong> <sup>[1]</sup><sup>[2]</sup>. A crescent moon and a humble buoy punctuate a river turned to molten gold, marking both ending and beginning <sup>[3]</sup><sup>[4]</sup>.
