J.M.W. Turner: Prophet Against Empire I

The British Romantic painter, Joseph Mallord William Turner exhibited his painting: Snowstorm: Hannibal and His Army Crossing the Alps at the Royal Academy of London in 1812. The painting made its debut at the height of the British Empire. In the previous thirty years the world had begun to change. The American War for Independence and the French Revolution had ignited a passion throughout Europe for liberty. The Napoleonic wars had already begun and were raging throughout Europe. Some had begun to realize that imperialism brings riches and power to the ruling class, but the damage it inflicts at home and abroad is too much for any great empire to bear. Turner’s painting invites us to condemn the ideology that war and conquest is heroic and glorious, his beliefs were influenced by the politics and poetry of his day, and his painting serves as a warning to his society about the trappings of empire, conquest, and domination.

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