Joseph Mallord William TurnerBritish, 1775–1851Whalers
May one see it?
Yes, receiving visitors
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Room808New York, United States
On public display.
- Checked
- 5 hours ago
- In this state since
- Sep 26, 2026
- Source
- The museum's own collection data
About the painting
Whalers is an 1845 painting by British artist J. M. W. Turner. Done in oil on canvas, the work depicts a whaling ship and her launches pursuing a whale. Originally created with the hope that collector Elhanan Bicknell would purchase it, the work is currently found in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The painting was the centerpiece for the exhibition Turner’s Whaling Pictures at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2016.
The painting depicts a wounded sperm whale thrashing in a sea of foam and blood. In the background is a ghostly three-masted whaling vessel. The massive head of a wounded whale is breaking through the sea surface is to the left, its tail is seen in the froth to the right and a small boat is being tossed in the center foreground.
Particulars
- Accession number
- 96.29
What it shows
Sources
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art: the museum's own open data · fetched 4 days ago
- Image: The Metropolitan Museum of Art — Open Access (CC0)
Meanwhile, in the life of Joseph Mallord William Turner
The whole life1830–1840s
Criticism in the 1830s–1840s and Ruskin’s defence
His innovative works, bordering on abstraction, gave him a reputation for madness: the Victorian public preferred realism and sentimentality, and Queen Victoria refused to knight him. John Ruskin came to his defence, calling him “the greatest artist of all time”.
1840–1844
Last journeys: Venice and Switzerland
On a second trip to Venice (1840) he also visited Trieste and Coburg, and in 1841 and 1844 he made two final trips to Switzerland, in his sixties.
1845–1851
Life as “Mr Booth” in Chelsea
In his seventies he formed a relationship with the widow Sophia Caroline Booth and often stayed with her, under the pseudonym “Mr Booth” or “Admiral Booth”, in her house at 6 Davis’s Place (now Cheyne Walk) in Chelsea, where he died in 1851.
