The Sea & the Sublime

Across centuries of painting, artists have searched for a way to communicate a force that completely and utterly challenges human control. A force so vast, unpredictable, and seemingly indifferent that it resists our ambitions and the structures we cast on it. As it is, the sea has found its place as such a metaphor. This exhibition is a collection of works that examine the delicate boundary that separates humanities intention and the environmental sublime, asking what happens when that fleeting sense of control begins to crumble.

The progression you will find among the following paintings is one that calls us to anticipate the inevitable. Total collapse. In The Calm Sea by Courbet, the sea appears still but is still heavy with tension, suggesting that calmness is not entirely safe. Continuing, fishermen strain against their nets and the incoming fog, ships become consumed by dangerous storms, and wreckage collects along treacherous shores. The Gulf Stream by Homer takes its place in the center of the exhibition, presenting a lone figure surrounded by danger. An example of the suspension between survival and annihilation. Lastly, a painting void of humanity but brimming with uninhabitable landscape and icy ocean closes this experience nicely, showing that nature continues without regard for human presence.

This collection of art spanning from 1763 to 1899 attempts to tear down the illusion of mastery rather than celebrate the victory of. The paintings show humans as small, their technology and efforts unable to compete with the scale and a ferocity of the natural world. The goal of this exhibition is to show how control over nature is never absolute, but temporary.

Gustave Courbet - The Calm Sea

1869

Medium: Oil on canvas

Metropolitan Museum of Art

At first glance, The Calm Sea by Gustave Courbet appears to be tranquil. It's a perfectly flat horizon, full of light tones, and features sparse maritime activity. However, Courbet avoids creating a fully peaceful scene. The artwork was painted during a period when he was working from direct observation on the Normandy coast, showing his commitment to Realism and rejection of common idealized landscape traditions. Visually, the sea is presented as endless and tame, but high above, making up over half the frame are large cumulus clouds, opening a door to inclement weather. In the context of this exhibit, The Calm Sea represents a moment of deception. The scene appears to be under control, but whether or not that control stays intact remains unknown. This painting holds its breath before the disruption and danger that are depicted in the works that follow unfold.

J. M. W. Turner - Fishermen at Sea

1796

Medium: Oil on canvas

Tate, London

J. M. W. Turner created Fishermen at Sea as a young adult living amid the early stages of the Industrial Revolution in Britain. It is one of his first oil paintings that was exhibited and with it he began a pattern of depicting atmosphere as larger than life. The scene depicts a small fishing vessel sloshing against dark waves only lit by the moon and a small lantern, with the majority of the composition dominated by nature. Considering the history of the Industrial Revolution, the work aligns with the current awareness of the sea as both economically important and physically dangerous. His use of contrasting light and shadow accentuate the Romantic idea of the sublime, in which nature is both awe inspiring and fear inducing. Looking outward at the exhibition, this piece presents an early glimpse at the fragility of humanity, whose survival depends entirely on forces beyond its control.

Winslow Homer - The Fog Warning

1885

Medium: Oil on canvas

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

The rocky crags of Prouts Neck, Maine is where Winslow Homer resided when he created The Fog Warning. This piece tells the story of the harsh living and working conditions of coastal workers in Atlantic fishing regions. During this time in Homer’s career, he has moved away from illustration and toward more serious watercolor based on his observations. We see a fisherman rowing hastily perhaps toward his ship on the horizon, attempting to outrun the approaching threat of fog. Homer shows us a moment before the rain, a moment of anticipation in which humanity is shown to still have a level of control over its fate. But, the fog is approaching and it's unpredictable, like all of nature. This work, within this exhibition, is a turning point… Human effort is there, but nature is already asserting dominance over the scene. 

Winslow Homer - The Gulf Stream

1899

Medium: Oil on canvas

The Metropolitan of Art, New York

Towards the end of the 19th century, Winslow Homer takes a trip to the Caribbean wherein he studies and sketches everyday life of the locals. Back in his permanent home in Maine, Homer paints composition featuring a solitary Black sailor adrift in a damaged boat, surrounded by crashing waves and threatening nature, including circling sharks and an approaching tornado. Unlike Homer’s previous coastal scenes, there is no shoreline or possibility of rescue, increasing the sense of desolation. The subject appears to be directionless, and without the ability to control the vessel, there is nothing left to do but wait for the impending natural forces to wipe out what is left. Homer pushes past the possibility of survival and suspends any effort at all. Within the exhibition, The Gulf Stream represents the breakdown of humanity's ability to control an outcome and what can happen when we are fully thrown into the sublime. 

J. M. W. Turner - Snow Storm: Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth

1842

Medium: Oil on canvas

Tate, London

J. M. W. Turner painted Snow Storm: Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth in 1842 during a time of quickly evolving industry. The composition is intentionally chaotic, as Turner wanted to capture the spiraling vortex of snow, water, and wind, where an obscured steam-powered vessel barely remains afloat. He uses large brushstrokes to paint the idea of an all consuming storm. There is no discernible horizon, but is replaced by the rotational motion which pulls us into the scene. With Turner's turn away from traditional landscape painting and toward abstract experience we understand this piece as a representation of nature as an engulfing force, not just something to look at from afar. This storm defies the strength of humanities best technology, nearly overwhelming it, and humanity with it. 

Claude-Joseph Vernet - Shipwreck off a Rocky Coast

1763

Medium: Oil on canvas

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

As an older artist historically, Claude-Joseph Vernet takes inspiration from the times tradition of 18th century landscape painting. Shipwreck off a rocky Coast is considered a mastery of maritime disaster. Following said tradition, the painting features staged action such as ships thrashing against jagged rocks, survivors struggling to get to shore, and an incredibly dramatic stormy sky. Contrasting later Romantic paintings of the sea, Vernet’s scene is highly theatrical and structured. He keeps the destructive power of the storm but maintains a level of order in how he arranges his composition. Because this work was created during the Enlightenment period, it reflects a growing interest in nature as something to observe physically and philosophically. In this exhibition, this piece fits as an example of maritime sublimity, since human vulnerability is fully exposed even though it's shown in an ordered world. 

Frederic Edwin Church - The Icebergs

1861

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dallas Museum of Art

Frederic Edwin Church painted The Icebergs in 1861 following his journey to the North Atlantic. Compositionally, we are presented with a vast arctic seascape interrupted by intimidating ice formations. The cold, reflective water draws us deeper into the scene, though before we travel onward, our eyes stop on the remains of a sailing vessel buried beneath ice and snow. While the world is devoid of human presence, Church tells the story of the past by including that detail. Once again, nature has overpowered man. Contextually, this painting is an example of 19th century exploration and scientific curiosity toward remote natural environments. The Icebergs continues and completes the theme of the sublime with this exhibition, by being a landscape of absolute stillness and isolation. The nature here is not violent by way of motion, but is overwhelming by way of scale and permanence, fully unconcerned with humanity. 

References

Burke, Edmund. A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful. 1757.

Barbara Novak. Nature and Culture: American Landscape Painting, 1825–1875. Oxford University Press, 1980.