On the last day of this year’s Art Blogmas, I’m sharing an exceptional painting – J. M. W. Turner’s Snow Storm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps.
Art Blogmas 2022
We’re finishing our Culture Tourist Art Blogmas with quite an unusual winter painting – the one without any snow. However, you can recognise its winter theme very well with a closer look at it.
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J. M. W. Turner – Snow Storm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps
J. M. W. Turner was a British Romantic painter who lived during the 19th century. He’s well known for his soft brushstrokes and paintings depicting steam and fog. His distinctive style is clearly recognisable in this painting, too.
Turner created this painting after he visited Paris, where he saw Jacques-Louis David’s picture of Napoleon Crossing the Alps. He drew a parallel between Napoleon and Hannibal. And made his representation of a general battling nature.
The power of nature is visible in a dark black storm approaching a group of soldiers. Similar to the wave, the threatening dark volume emphasises its dynamism even more. It seems like it will wipe away a group of scared men.
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Turner was the master of building the artwork with the subtle layers of transparent paint that are as delicate and thin as the cobweb. The upper part of the paintings could stand as an independent art piece, consisting only of those paint spreads.
Thank you for following along with Culture Tourist Art Blogmas 2022. I hope you enjoyed all the paintings I shared with you during the last month. Which one was your favourite?
Be sure to check in here tomorrow, as well, when I’ll show you some of the most beautiful Christmas paintings from art history.