The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons, 16 October 1834

On the night of 16 October 1834 fire consumed London’s Houses of Parliament while crowds watched from the banks of the Thames. Turner records the struggle as boats at lower right head toward the flames, but he magnified the height of the fire, using the disaster to express human helplessness before the destructive power of nature. Brilliant swathes of colour and shifting atmosphere border on abstraction. Painted in 1835.

Printed on 200 gsm museum-quality matte paper from the museum’s high-resolution open-access image, with a white border so nothing of the original is cropped. Available from A4 up to 70 × 100 cm, or as a digital download to print yourself.

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