Rain, Steam and Speed, 1843
J. M. W. Turner
Oil on canvas · 91 x 121.8 cm
A steam train dissolves into weather, barely more solid than the storm around it.
A train hurtles through rain across a bridge, dissolving into golden atmosphere — Turner's thrilling 1844 vision of the new railway age. Form melts into light and weather; it is speed and modernity painted decades before anyone else dared.
What you're looking at
There is a hare. It is running along the track ahead of the locomotive, painted in a few brown strokes on the right-hand side, and most people never find it — at 4K you can. The bridge is Brunel's at Maidenhead and the railway is the Great Western. Turner paints the train as almost the only hard-edged thing in the picture and lets everything else turn into weather.
On a Frame TV
About 1.34:1, so the clean crop trims a composition that is mostly atmosphere and can afford it — though the matted file keeps the full diagonal of the bridge. Golden and hazy with low contrast; it suits soft light.
National Gallery · Visit it in London →
- 4K master file (3840px+)
- Samsung Frame TV–ready crop
- Phone wallpaper crop
- Printable art card
Public domain · one .zip, no sign-up
More like this
Other works in the collection, starting with J. M. W. Turner.
