Oil paint on canvas
Essex
Tate Britain
Tate collection highlights
Tate Collection
Works with images
Works on display
Joseph Mallord William Turner
Turner Bequest
Oil paintings
Collection
Turner owned by Tate
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/joseph-mallord-william-turner-558" aria-label="More by Joseph Mallord William Turner" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Joseph Mallord William Turner</a>
Snow Storm  SteamBoat off a Harbours Mouth
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
abstraction
blizzard
boat, steam
emotions, concepts and ideas
England
England, East
Essex
formal qualities
from recognisable sources
gestural
Harwich - non-specific
landscape
places
sea
seascapes and coasts
society
transport: water
UK cities, towns and villages
UK counties
UK countries and regions
wave
weather
<p>This is one of Turner’s most daring paintings. In a battle between modern machine and nature, a steamboat faces a blizzard. Its black fumes join the whirling vortex of snow and sea. Turner claimed he ‘got the sailors to lash me to the mast to observe [the storm]...for four hours’. Although it can’t be proven, it shows that Turner wanted us to see this dizzying scene as an authentic record. When he heard it had been ridiculed as ‘soapsuds and whitewash’, he responded: ‘I did not paint it to be understood, but... to show what such a scene was like’.</p><p><em>Gallery label, October 2023</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
23 July 2001 – 16 June 2002
2002-06-16
23 July 2001 – 16 June 2002
2002-06-16
2001-07-23
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2001-07-23
Painting Seascapes
Collection based display
22 July 2002 – 21 May 2007
2007-05-21
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2002-07-22
Finished or Unfinished
Collection based display
15 June 2005 – 4 September 2005
2005-09-04
15 June 2005 – 4 September 2005
2005-09-04
2005-06-15
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2005-06-15
A Picture of Britain
Exhibition
1 October 2007 – 21 September 2008
2008-09-21
1 October 2007 – 6 January 2008
2008-01-06
2007-10-01
National Gallery of Art (Washington DC, USA)
10 February 2008 – 18 May 2008
2008-05-18
2008-02-10
Dallas Museum of Art (Dallas, USA)
http://www.DallasMuseumofArt.org
23 June 2008 – 21 September 2008
2008-09-21
2008-06-23
Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, USA)
http://www.metmuseum.org
2007-10-01
JMW Turner
Tate partnerships & programmes
21 September 2009 – 19 September 2010
2010-09-19
21 September 2009 – 24 January 2010
2010-01-24
2009-09-21
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
22 February 2010 – 23 May 2010
2010-05-23
2010-02-22
Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais (Paris, France)
21 June 2010 – 19 September 2010
2010-09-19
2010-06-21
Museo Nacional del Prado (Madrid, Spain)
2009-09-21
Turner and the Masters
Exhibition
22 February 2010 – 19 September 2010
2010-09-19
21 September 2009 – 3 January 2010
2010-01-03
2009-09-21
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
22 February 2010 – 23 May 2010
2010-05-23
2010-02-22
Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais (Paris, France)
21 June 2010 – 19 September 2010
2010-09-19
2010-06-21
Museo Nacional del Prado (Madrid, Spain)
2010-02-22
Turner and the Masters
Loan-out
2 June 2011 – 22 April 2012
2012-04-22
28 January 2012 – 22 April 2012
2012-04-22
2012-01-28
Turner Contemporary (Margate, UK)
2011-06-02
Turner and the Elements
Loan-out
21 November 2013 – 1 September 2014
2014-09-01
21 November 2013 – 21 April 2014
2014-04-21
2013-11-21
National Maritime Museum (London, UK)
http://www.nmm.ac.uk
4 June 2014 – 1 September 2014
2014-09-01
2014-06-04
Peabody Essex Museum (Salem, USA)
http://www.pem.org
2013-11-21
Turner and Marine Painting: Imagining the Sea, 1796 - 1899
Loan-out
10 September 2014 – 20 September 2015
2015-09-20
10 September 2014 – 25 January 2015
2015-01-25
2014-09-10
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
24 February 2015 – 24 May 2015
2015-05-24
2015-02-24
J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles, USA)
20 June 2015 – 20 September 2015
2015-09-20
2015-06-20
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, de Young Museum (San Francisco, USA)
http://www.famsf.org
2014-09-10
Late Turner: Painting Set Free
Exhibition
24 February 2015 – 31 January 2016
2016-01-31
24 February 2015 – 24 May 2015
2015-05-24
2015-02-24
J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles, USA)
20 June 2015 – 20 September 2015
2015-09-20
2015-06-20
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, de Young Museum
31 October 2015 – 31 January 2016
2016-01-31
2015-10-31
Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto, Canada)
http://www.ago.net
2015-02-24
Late Turner
Loan-out
1 September 2016 – 31 December 2016
2016-12-31
1 September 2016 – 31 December 2016
2016-12-31
2016-09-01
Glynn Vivian Art Gallery (Swansea, UK)
2016-09-01
Exploring the Richard Glynn Vivian Bequest & Historical Collections
Loan-out
30 March 2018 – 17 June 2018
2018-06-17
2 April 2018 – 17 June 2018
2018-06-17
2018-04-02
Tate Liverpool (Liverpool, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/
2018-03-30
Ken's Show: Exploring the Unseen
Collection based display
6 July 2019 – 2 May 2021
2021-05-02
6 July 2019 – 13 October 2019
2019-10-13
2019-07-06
Kunstmuseum (Luzern, Switzerland)
http://www.kunstmuseumluzern.ch
8 November 2019 – 26 January 2020
2020-01-26
2019-11-08
LWL-Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte Westfälisches (Munster, Germany)
http://landesmuseum.lwl.org
20 February 2020 – 7 September 2020
2020-09-07
2020-02-20
Frist Center for the Visual Arts (Nashville, USA)
2019-07-06
The Sea and the Alps: Turner's Quest for the Sublime
Tate partnerships & programmes
28 October 2020 – 10 July 2022
2022-07-10
28 October 2020 – 12 September 2021
2021-09-12
2020-10-28
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
17 October 2021 – 6 February 2022
2022-02-06
2021-10-17
Kimbell Art Museum (Fort Worth, USA)
http://www.kimbellart.org
27 March 2022 – 10 July 2022
2022-07-10
2022-03-27
Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, USA)
http://www.mfa.org
2020-10-28
Turner's Modern World
Exhibition
17 October 2021 – 10 July 2022
2022-07-10
17 October 2021 – 6 February 2022
2022-02-06
2021-10-17
Kimbell Art Museum (Fort Worth, USA)
http://www.kimbellart.org
27 March 2022 – 10 July 2022
2022-07-10
2022-03-27
Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, USA)
http://www.mfa.org
2021-10-17
Turner's Modern World
Loan-out
13 March 2023
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2023-03-13
Gallery 103
Collection based display
28 October 2023 – 10 March 2024
2024-03-10
28 October 2023 – 10 March 2024
2024-03-10
2023-10-28
Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus (Munich, Germany)
2023-10-28
Turner at Lenbachhaus Munich
Loan-out
Snow Storm - Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth
support: 914 × 1219 mm
frame: 1233 × 1535 × 145 mm
Accepted by the nation as part of the <a href="/search?gid=999999781" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Turner Bequest</a> 1856
<div class="text">
<p>This is one of Turner’s most daring paintings. In a battle between modern machine and nature, a steamboat faces a blizzard. Its black fumes join the whirling vortex of snow and sea. Turner claimed he ‘got the sailors to lash me to the mast to observe [the storm]...for four hours’. Although it can’t be proven, it shows that Turner wanted us to see this dizzying scene as an authentic record. When he heard it had been ridiculed as ‘soapsuds and whitewash’, he responded: ‘I did not paint it to be understood, but... to show what such a scene was like’.</p>
</div>

Display caption
2023-10-25T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>398. </b>[<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-snow-storm-steam-boat-off-a-harbours-mouth-n00530" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00530</span></a>]<b> Snow Storm—Steam-Boat off a Harbour's Mouth making Signals in Shallow Water, and going by the Lead. The Author was in this Storm on the Night the Ariel left Harwich</b> Exh. 1842</p>
<p>THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON (530)</p>
<p>Canvas, 36 × 48 (91·5 × 122)</p>
<p><b>Coll.</b> Turner Bequest 1856 (10, ‘Steamer in a Snow Storm’ 4'0" × 3'0"); transferred to the Tate Gallery 1910, returned to the National Gallery 1952 and to the Tate Gallery 1968.</p>
<p><b>Exh.</b> R.A. 1842 (182); Manchester 1887 (621); Amsterdam 1936 (163, repr.); Paris 1938 (146, repr.); New York, Chicago and Toronto 1946–7 (56, pl. 45); Venice and Rome 1948 (45); R.A. 1951–2 (163); New York, St Louis and San Francisco 1956–7 (115, repr. p. 16); New York 1966 (23, repr. in colour p. 44); R.A. 1974–5 (504, repr. in colour p. 504).</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> Ruskin 1843 and 1857 (1903–12, iii, pp. 297, 534, 569–71; xiii, pp. 161–3); Thornbury 1862, i, pp. 334–5, 347; ii, p. 207; 1877, pp. 407–8, 457–8, 466; Hamerton 1879, pp. 286–8; Monkhouse 1879, p. 128; Bell 1901, pp. 144–5 no. 233; Armstrong 1902, pp. 154–5, 231; Falk 1938, pp. 174–5; Clare 1951, pp. 106–7, repr. p. 108; Evans and Whitehouse 1956, p. 273; Davies 1959, pp. 98, 185; Finberg 1961, pp. 390, 506 no. 547; Herrmann 1963, p. 35; Kitson 1964, pp. 79, 82, repr. p. 68; Rothenstein and Butlin 1964, pp. 52–62, colour pl. xxi; Gowing 1966, pp. 38, 45–8, repr. in colour p. 44; Lindsay 1966, pp. 191, 255; Brill 1969, pp. 21–2, repr. p. 22; Gage 1969, pp. 39–40, 91; Reynolds 1969, p. 190, colour pl. 160; Gaunt 1971, p. 11, colour pl. 46; Watson 1971, p. 116; Gage 1972, p. 45, pl. 3; Herrmann 1975, pp. 50, 234, colour pl. 173; Adele Holcomb, ‘John Sell Cotman's <i>Dismasted Brig</i> and the Motif of the Drifiting Boat’, <i>Studies in Romanticism</i> xiv 1975, p. 38; Storch 1978, pp. 199–200; Wilton 1979, pp. 219–20, 228, pl. 228; Wilton 1980, pp. 99–100; Ziff 1980, p. 170; Charles Ninnis, ‘The Mystery of the Ariel’, <i>Turner Society News</i> no. 20, January 1981, pp. 6, 8, repr.; Paulson 1982, pp. 79, 82, 96.</p>
<p>The picture may recall a particularly bad storm in January 1842 though it has not been possible to tie down the exact incident. Despite Turner's title, no ship called <i>Ariel</i> is known to have been lost or involved in a storm in the years immediately preceding 1842, nor is any ship of that name known to have operated out of Harwich at this time. However, Charles Ninnis has suggested that Turner misremembered the name of the <i>Fairy</i>, which did set out from Harwich on 12 November 1840 and sank with all hands in a storm which began the following day and was still raging on 21 November, ‘the day on which the Princess Royal was born’, as the label on the back of No. 480 has it. Turner is not known to have been at Harwich at the time but could well have witnessed the storm at Margate where he often stayed with Mrs Booth.</p>
<p>In addition Adele Holcomb has cast doubts on the veracity of the story that Turner had himself tied to the mast for four hours during the storm; it does indeed bear a suspicious resemblance to accounts of the marine painter Joseph Vernet. However, in the fifth edition of his notes on the Turners on view at Marlborough House, Ruskin added a report of a conversation between the Rev. William Kingsley and Turner in which the artist stressed the truth of the incident and his interest in recording the experience: ‘I had taken my mother and a cousin to see Turner's pictures, and, as my mother knows nothing about art, I was taking her down the gallery to look at the large “Richmond Park”, but as we were passing the “Snowstorm” she stopped before it, and I could hardly get her to look at any other picture; she told me a great deal more about it than I had any notion of, though I have seen many sea storms. She had been in such a scene on the coast of Holland during the war. When, some time afterwards, I thanked Turner for his permission for her to see his pictures, I told him that he would not guess what had caught my mother's fancy, and then named the picture; and he then said, “I did not paint it to be understood, but I wished to show what such a scene was like; I got the sailors to lash me to the mast to observe it; I was lashed for four hours, and I did not expect to escape, but I felt bound to record it if I did. But no one had any business to like the picture.” “But,” said I, “my mother once went through just such a scene, and it brought it all back to her.” “Is your mother a painter?” “No.” “Then she ought to have been thinking of something else.” These were nearly his words; I observed at the time he used “record” and “<a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a>” as the title “author” had struck me before’—see Turner's sub-title in the R.A. catalogue; Ruskin himself wrote ‘Note the significant use of this word, instead of “artist”’.</p>
<p>However, Ruskin records Turner's hurt reaction to the criticism (untraced) that the picture was nothing but a mass of ‘soapsuds and whitewash’: ‘Turner was passing the evening at my father's house on the day this criticism came out: and after dinner, sitting in his arm-chair by the fire, I heard him muttering to himself at intervals, “soapsuds and whitewash! What would they have? I wonder what they think the sea's like? I wish they'd been in it.”’ (Incidentally Frith, giving evidence at the Whistler versus Ruskin trial in 1878, attributed this criticism to Ruskin himself! See Ruskin, 1903–12, xxix, p. 584.) The <i>Athenaeum's</i> review on 14 May was typical of this abuse: ‘This gentleman has, on former occasions, chosen to paint with cream, or chocolate, yolk of egg, or currant jelly, —here he uses his whole array of kitchen stuff. Where the steam-boat is—where the harbour begins, or where it ends—which are the signals, and which the author in the <i>Ariel</i>...are matters past our finding out.’ Or, as the <i>Art Union</i> for 1 June observed, ‘Through the driving snow there are just perceptible portions of a steam-boat labouring on a rolling sea; but before any further account of the vessel can be given, it will be necessary to wait until the storm is cleared off a little. The sooner the better.’</p>
<p>In <i>Modern Painters</i> Ruskin described the <i>Snowstorm</i>, with two <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/w/watercolour" title="Glossary definition for 'Watercolour'"><span>watercolours</span></a>, as ‘nothing more than passages of the most hopeless, desolate, uncontrasted greys, and yet ... three of the very finest pieces of colour that have come from his hand’. Later, in a description of the effect of sea after prolonged storm he pointed out that ‘There is indeed no distinction left between air and sea; that no object, nor horizon, nor any land-mark or natural evidence of position is left ... Suppose the effect of the first sunbeam sent from above to show this annihilation to itself, and you have the sea picture of the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/a/academy" title="Glossary definition for 'Academy'"><span>Academy</span></a>, 1842, the Snowstorm, one of the very grandest statements of sea-motion, mist, and light, that has ever been put on <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/canvas" title="Glossary definition for 'Canvas'"><span>canvas</span></a>, even by Turner. Of course it was not understood; his finest works never are...’</p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, <i>The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner</i>, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-22T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
abstraction blizzard boat, steam emotions, concepts and ideas England England, East Essex formal qualities from recognisable sources gestural Harwich - non-specific landscape places sea seascapes and coasts society transport: water UK cities, towns and villages UK counties UK countries and regions wave weather