The Fighting Temeraire

Turner watched the old warship Temeraire — a hero of Trafalgar, stripped of her masts — being towed up the Thames to be broken up, and painted her farewell as a ship of light. The pale hull glides past a squat black steam tug: sail giving way to steam in a single sunset.

Visitors often stand before it the longest. The sun is setting twice in this picture — on the day, and on an age of wooden walls and canvas. Our guides tell the tow's story every Saturday at eleven, with the ship's plans unrolled beside the frame.

The tug's tall funnel trails smoke across a sky Turner built from little more than gold and grey. Below it, the river repeats the sunset back — look for the second, smaller sun shimmering in the water.