Shipwreck
Francis Danby
ca. 1850
Francis Danby had a passion for boat-building and indulged in this activity as a serious hobby from the 1830s until his death while living in the port town of Exmouth. This romantic image dates from the end of the artist’s career when he was producing marine paintings and perhaps also reveals, to an almost exaggerated degree, the influence of J. M. W. Turner. As a listing ship with a broken mast succumbs to the winds and waves, its crew seeks safety in a longboat, thus emphasizing the futility of human ambition in the face of the overwhelming power of sublime natural forces.
Yale Center for British Art, New Haven · Image: Yale Center for British Art, Public domain · Text: Yale Center for British Art, CC0