Dystopian's Response To Industrialism

The response to industrialisation was both utopian and dystopian. Compare the work of two artists from the period covering the mid-eighteenth to mid-nineteenth century, whose art reflects different perspectives on industrialisation.

This essay will compare the paintings: The Fighting Temeraire tugged to her last berth to be broken up (1839), Steam and Speed - The Great Western Railway (1844) and Snow Storm - Steam-boat off a Harbours Mouth (1842) by Joseph Mallard William Turner. (1775-1851) And three paintings by John Constable (1779-1837) : Flatford Mill (Scene on a Navigable River) (1816), The Hay Wain (1821) and The Cornfield (1826).
Both of these artists provide a large difference of perspective on the issue of industrialisation through
The swirling blue/grey of the ocean combined with the ominous grey sky and the reddish plume of soot billowing out of the exhaust stack of the embattled paddle-wheeler stimulates a feeling of uneasiness in the viewer. Rodner (1986) promotes this idea discussing that while mechanisation is vital to the modern age, machines are often deficient in their adeptness, therefore creating a susceptibility to the power of mother nature. The combination of the black triangular shadow in the foreground pointing toward, and the break in the sky illuminating the steamer, create a dramatic contrast that naturally draws the eye to the drama of the stricken, central focal point. Ibata (2008) furthers this notion discussing that through a combination of contrasting tone and textural depth the observer is heaved into the maelstrom.

The wistful paintings of John Constable (1779-1837) are a reminder that not everyone welcomed the industrialisation of society. Constable painted peaceful scenes native to his birthplace of Suffolk and the surrounding areas. Eschewing the depiction of the mechanised ways of an industrialised society, Constable favoured scapes that were devoid of modern invention such as steam powered
Here, people still relied on horse and manpower and were not necessarily trying to tame nature and the elements with modern machinery. This was a recurring theme throughout his work. In Flatford Mill the scene is set beside the river, the horse is being tethered to the barge and then will tow the barge up to the mill, same way it had been done for countless years before. The boy on the horseback is in no real hurry, same for the men in the background building the barge. As White (2008) highlights, the speed of the industrialised planet is long forgotten as the viewer of Flatford Mill is ushered away to a more tranquil period in time. The sky is cloudy, smog free and far from brooding. Constable’s use of pale blues, greys and white for the distant sky combined with vibrant greens and warm browns for the trees and land are considerably removed from the haze filled, muted tones and oft indistinguishable features of a Turner