Replenishing the Void: Turner’s Sunset at Sea, with Gurnets

Authors

  • Mandy Marie Swann University of New South Wales , Sydney.

Keywords:

J.M.W. Turner, marine animals, sea, aesthetics, Edmund Burke

Abstract

The nineteenth-century marine animal is sublime, but J.M.W Turner makes his marine animals beautiful in his watercolour Sunset at Sea, with Gurnets, c. 1836-40. In this essay, I analyse Turner’s depiction of marine animals through the lens of Edmund Burke’s aesthetic categories of the sublime and the beautiful, showcasing both seldom studied sketches and paintings and major pieces. Sunset at Sea, with Gurnets represents a rare aesthetic shift in the period and in Turner’s own work. The watercolour suggests Turner’s awareness of the unsustainable plunder of the ocean, as well as his desire to evoke empathy for the inhabitants of the sea and signal the intimate connection between marine animals and humanity.

Author Biography

Mandy Marie Swann, University of New South Wales , Sydney.

Dr. Mandy Swann is currently working with Prof. Christine Alexander on two projects at the University of New South Wales, Sydney. The first is a volume on Charlotte Brontë’s later juvenilia, the second is a monograph on Charlotte Brontë and Romanticism. She completed her doctorate on the portrayal of the sea and marine animals in the Romantic period in 2011. She is also researching the representations of the sea and marine animals in contemporary English literature, culture and marine policy for a monograph entitled: Emotional Responses to the Sea and Marine animals in Literature, Culture and Policy. Recent publications include, ‘The Destroying Angel of Tempest’: the Sea in Villette, Brontë studies, Vol. 38 No. 2, April 2013 and her article ‘Shelley’s Utopian Seascapes’ is upcoming in Studies in Romanticism. Correspondence to: Mandy Swann. Email: m.swann@pessce.net

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Published

2014-07-10

How to Cite

Swann, M. M. (2014). Replenishing the Void: Turner’s Sunset at Sea, with Gurnets. Journal of Ecocriticism, 6(2), 1–17. Retrieved from https://ojs.unbc.ca/index.php/joe/article/view/551