Much of the movie-going pleasure is in the meticulous
detail, anachronisms of dress, conduct, language so often ruining historical
dramas in the eyes of historians. A small lost opportunity, given the incidental but highly relevant references to the slave trade, is the absence of any Black citizens in the streets and maritime locations, at a time when many were working as sailors and servants. 7There
will doubtless be other nit-picking corrections and complaints, but they are rather irrelevant
given the high quality of the movie and its many delights – most especially the
assembled RAs on Varnishing Day. Who ever
expected to see Shee, Stanfield, Prout etc portrayed on film? And the depiction
of Haydon as neurotic cousin to Leigh Hunt is superb - I hope that actor gets
an award. I was surprised there was no mention
of Haydon’s unhappy end, though, as surely that must have occasioned some
expressive grunts from Turner.
However, pedantry compels one correction, lest the error
embed in future accounts. Ruskin wrote eloquently
in praise of the sky and sea in Turner’s Slave Ship when it was shown in 1840 as
Slavers Throwing overboard the Dead and Dying – Typhoon coming on. But he did not ask his father to buy it - the subject was too ‘painful’. John James misunderstood, misinterpreted the
praise and purchased the painting as a surprise present, which was hung in John’s
bedroom, not in the entrance hall.
Ruskin hated waking to the horrible scene but could not say so; instead,
he sold it almost immediately his father died.
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