Sunrise with Sea Monsters
Sunrise with Sea Monsters ( Sunrise with sea monsters ) is a 1845 painted oil painting by the English painter William Turner. The picture was taken in the late phase Turner, and achieves its effect through the colors, while the motives dissolve almost completely in abstraction. Turner engages with this image again one of the fantastic subjects, which accompanied him irregularly through his entire career. The 45x38 cm large painting is now owned by the Tate Gallery in London, and currently hangs in the Tate Britain Museum.
The lower part of the image shows swampy, dark, probably cold sea. In the upper part there is a yellow- golden sky before a sunrise. In the middle lurk the eponymous sea monster. The monsters are hardly recognizable as a body, rather than dissolving particles, more exercise than the body. Due to the coloring gives the whole picture the impression of fluidity and movement that has already been established by title and subject choice.
The title already directs the viewing of the image. In search of the sea monsters, the observer recognizes two eyes. Other motifs in this area could show two mouths, or a fish head in half profile. It is also possible that conceived in resolution motive than two eyes to interpret a mouth, just as it can also be a pure wave formation.
The picture was taken in the English seaside town of Margate.