A Wreck, with Fishing Boats

Turner made many of his later seapieces powerfully immediate and disorientating by not including any foreground or landscape reference points. Thisabsence of traditional framing devices immerses the viewer more directly in the tempestuous scene.

Here, the paint suggesting the white crests of the waves is vigorously applied, often with a palette knife. In the distance you can see the sails of one or two smaller boats alongside the bluish hull of a much bigger wrecked ship, possibly recalling an incident Turner witnessed off the coast of Kent.