What is the power of nature?

At the turn of 18 and 19 centuries, English landscape painting has sprung up in the world painting field, becoming a dazzling bright spot in the European oil painting grand view garden, among which Turner and constable, the twin stars of English landscape painting, are the most brilliant.

Constable's landscape paintings are closely combined with reality, and he only describes what he sees; Turner loves the sea. His Steamboat in a Snowstorm is a masterpiece. In this painting, Turner uses four colors of black, white, blue and yellow to sweep the ice and snow on the sea surface, while the steamboat bumps between mountains of huge waves. In this painting, all the still objects are stirred up by Turner's brush and become blurred. Light and shadow, rain and fog, waves and faint lights from ships constitute the main body of the picture, colors rise to the elements of the picture, and the specific object outlines are abstracted. This work can be said to be a symbol of Turner's complete break with academic landscape painting. /kloc-Dutch painters in the 0/7th century have painted seascapes and boats, and people can completely build a real boat based on those painted boats; Because the painter at that time painted the "boat" he already knew in his heart, not the "boat" he saw at that time, all the details were extremely complete. However, people can't build a boat in a snowstorm, because we can't see clearly what the boat looks like when it rolls in the snow waves. We only think that water and sky are one color, light and shadow are intertwined, and the power of nature when it is angry is dazzling. Turner pursues the effect of such a feeling, and Turner uses color to express the experience of subjective feelings. This not only emphasizes the rich changes in the sea and sky, but also emphasizes the description of light, movement and atmosphere. This feeling has a long history for him. When he was young, he often traveled to the European continent by coal boat or fishing boat. Instead of visiting art galleries around the world, he accumulated experience and impressions of marine life. He asked people to tie themselves to the mast and observe the wonders of the sea in the storm. His incredible sense of color enhances the atmosphere and landscape, blending into phantom light effects, storms, ghostly fog and angry waves. It is one aspect of romantic art and impressionism to convey the painter's strong feelings in this striking perceptual power.

Despite Turner's high position, his pursuit of light, movement and atmosphere in this work still cannot be understood by those authoritative people in the college. Some people even said that he scribbled "soap bubbles and limewater" on the canvas. At this moment, john ruskin, a young critic who just graduated from Oxford University, stood up and spoke for Turner. 1843, 24-year-old Ruskin published his first volume, On Modern Painters, which immediately shocked the art world. Just as he later protected the young painters of the "Pre-Raphael School", he supported Turner who dared to innovate when he was older. Ruskin called Turner's paintings showing the movement of the sea, clouds and light "sensory realism" and called it a new type of realism. Ruskin deserves to be a critic with keen taste. The term "sensory realism" put forward by him not only accurately explains Turner's artistic characteristics, but also indicates a new pursuit in the field of painting later.

After Turner's death, when the French landscape painting school had developed very vigorously, Delacroix still missed the British pioneer. He once wrote: "Turner and constable are true innovators, who have gone beyond the path taken by landscape painters in the past. ..... from their examples, we have learned a good lesson. " Today, when we witness this masterpiece, we will still be shocked, awed and shocked by Turner's great power of nature. (Anonymous)