About this artwork

Thomas Campbell had witnessed naval preparations for the Battle of the Baltic, more commonly known as the Battle of Copenhagen. This was Nelson’s second great sea battle, when he defeated the Danish fleet off Copenhagen on 2 April 1801. Turner creates one of his most powerful vignettes in response to Campbell’s patriotic poem. Damaged men-of-war lie at anchor, while the battle still rages in the distance. Purple and blue smoke fills the sky, ‘like a hurricane eclipse/ of the sun’, illuminated by bursts of cannon fire. In the foreground a small launch is shown flying both the Union Jack and a white flag, indicating the possibility of a truce.

Updated before 2020

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  • artist:
  • title:
    One of Twenty Vignettes - Battle of the Baltic
  • date created:
    About 1835
  • materials:
    Watercolour over pencil on paper
  • measurements:
    14.00 x 13.00 cm
  • object type:
  • credit line:
    Accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to the National Gallery of Scotland, 1988
  • accession number:
    D 5160
  • gallery:
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Joseph Mallord William Turner

Joseph Mallord William Turner