Rain, Steam and Speed – The Great Western Railway

The engine appears as a dark shape at the end of a bridge that rushes towards the foreground. Around it, rain and steam dissolve the view. The sharp diagonal of the railway gives the eye a route through the blurred atmosphere. Joseph Mallord William Turner, the British painter, made this picture in 1844. It shows the Great Western Railway crossing the Thames at Maidenhead on the bridge designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The bridge’s daring structure and the train’s speed were recent achievements. A second, older road bridge can be seen at the left. Compare its quieter horizontal shape with the railway’s abrupt approach. Turner makes different ways of travelling occupy the same landscape, each with a different pace. His interest in steam power was sustained, and he used new forms of transport himself. The picture gives modern machinery a place within the weather and light of the natural world. Its engine is both a solid construction and a form that the storm almost swallows.