In the manner of J. M. W. Turner
British, 1775–1851
Rain, Steam and Jet Engines, 2026
Oil on canvas
92 × 138 cm
Never painted.
Commissioned for the collection, 2026.
PAB 2026.7.4
An airliner lifts off at the left into a funnel of rain and cloud, runway lights smearing beneath it, a control tower caught in the eye of the storm. A sliver of sun burns in the top corner. Turner's *Rain, Steam and Speed* sent a train across a bridge towards the viewer. Nearly two centuries on the machine has left the ground, and the weather is still the faster of the two.
The brief
An airliner taking off into a rainstorm, blurred runway lights, spray and exhaust heat merging with cloud, a sliver of sun. English Romantic oil painting, forms dissolving into luminous atmosphere, swirling vortex of golden light, sea spray and storm cloud, a barely legible man-made structure at the centre of the turbulence, impasto scumbled whites and yellows, warm ochre and cold grey, sublime scale, thin glazes and thick highlights. Museum photograph of the oil painting, even gallery lighting, no frame, no text, no wall, no floor, cropped to the canvas edge.
Written to the house rules. The painter's name does not appear.
Take it home
The painting on this room's wall, at its own proportions, nothing written on it.
