Boats Carrying Out Anchors to the Dutch Men of War

Joseph Mallord William Turner

National Gallery of Art

A rowboat carrying seven men is tossed within a furrow of swelling waves under a blanket of copper-brown clouds in this horizontal seascape painting. The white, foamy waves curve up in a deep U-shape close to us. The people in the rowboat all appear to have light skin, and they wear clothing and hats in shades of crimson red, butter yellow, slate blue, gray, and white. Four of the men row with long oars as the boat pitches toward us. One other rowboat follows in the distance, barely visible over the surging wave to our right. A wooden board and some debris are in the churning waves near the lower right corner. The three masted ships in the distance cluster at the center of the picture, and at least two more are visible closer to the horizon, which comes about a third of the way up this painting. Flags and sails tug against the flagpoles and masts, whipping to our right. A bank of towering, puffy, light gray and white clouds lines the horizon. A pale blue band of sky separates those clouds from the curtain of dark clouds, which runs diagonally from the center of the left edge of the painting up to the right corner.