The painting “The Fire of the English Parliament” by William Turner is a dramatic depiction of a historical event

The Fire of the English Parliament is an 1835 painting by William Turner based on a true story. The author captured a grand catastrophe in one of the buildings of the Palace of Westminster.

Buildings located on the banks of the Thames are engulfed in flames. The fire literally devours the House of Commons, throwing bright highlights on neighboring towers and reflected in the river, which makes the water look like hot lava. Sparks fly into the sky, smoke swirls.

Saturated red-gold colors, bold strokes, giving the picture a resemblance to the works of the Impressionists, demonstrate the power of the raging elements, in comparison with which the audience in the foreground looks especially fragile and defenseless.

Westminster Bridge is visible on the right side of the canvas, much larger than it actually is. The author deliberately distorts the perspective in order to give the work even more drama and enhance the emotional sound.

Name of the painting: “The Fire of the English Parliament”
Author: William Turner (1775-1851).
Year of writing: 1835
Size: 92.1 × 123.2 cm.
Style: Romanticism.
Genre: Landscape.
Technique: Oil painting.
Material: Canvas.
Location: Philadelphia Museum of Art, USA.

William Turner – English painter

He loved to portray the raging elements in all its might. And the first fire captured in his youth in 1792, when the Pantheon Theater burned down. It is not surprising that Turner watched the incident with Parliament almost from the front rows.

While the Houses of Lords and Commons were in flames, curious spectators hired boats to get closer to the scene. A painter settled in one of these boats and managed to make about a dozen sketches, which later served as material for the picture.

The piece was presented to the public at the British Institution in February 1835. And it got mixed reactions. Turner’s painting style, more characteristic of watercolor than oil painting, received particular criticism. The audience was not satisfied with the color and lighting effects, which, in their opinion, give the work excessive brightness and create chaos on the canvas.

The painting “The Fire of the English Parliament” by William Turner is a work that demonstrates not only a historical event and the skill of the author who captured the catastrophe, but also a complex mixture of feelings – from fear and horror to admiration and reverence that people experience in the face of an element that has escaped from control .