Turner’s “Slave Ship”: “Written upon the sky in lines of blood, girded with condemnation”

Nancy J. Scott, professor of fine arts, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts
James Walvin, professor emeritus in history, University of York, United Kingdom

“Slave Ship (Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead and Dying, Typhoon Coming On)”, Turner’s 1840 masterwork, is unfortunately too fragile to leave the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The painting occupies a critical place in the artist’s oeuvre; its subject, too, is of critical importance, in Turner’s time and in our own. In this talk, a scholar of art history and an expert in the history of slavery and Britain will elucidate the creation, exhibition, provenance, and historical context of this, one of Turner’s most modern works.