The Battle of Trafalgar, 21 October 1805, 1823-1824
Oil on canvas
National Maritime Museum, London, Greenwich Hospital Collection, © Greenwich Hospital Collection, London

The British naval ship Victory takes center stage in Joseph Mallord William Turner’s The Battle of Trafalgar, 21 October 1805. Turner was invited to make this painting eighteen years after the actual Battle of Trafalgar took place off the coast of Spain. It commemorates a key naval event of the Napoleonic Wars that was a victory for Britain, but resulted in the death of the country’s naval hero, Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson. To complete the work, Turner drew upon earlier sketches he had made of the ship and interviews with crew members that he recorded in 1805. It is the largest painting he ever made and it combines multiple moments from the event into one dramatic scene. Colliding ships and sailors struggling in the water suggest the chaos and human cost of battle on both sides. Turner’s work was criticized as an inaccurate representation of the event.