The Fighting Temeraire

In the middle of Turner's Fighting Temeraire, a small dark steam tug is towing a ghost-white warship up the Thames to be broken. Turner placed the tug's black funnel in front of its mast. Every real steamer of 1839 was built the opposite way, with the funnel behind. Turner knew this, and was furious when a later engraver silently corrected it for him. The funnel had to be in front so its acrid black smoke would blow backwards through the Temeraire's masts. When the ship was sold out of the Navy, she lost the right to fly the naval flag. Turner's smoke moves into that empty space. Now at National Gallery, London @nationalgallery