Chichester Canal

A canal lies still under a low sun, the dark silhouette of a moored ship's masts rising against a sky melting from gold to soft blue, the water a mirror of fading light. J. M. W. Turner reduces the scene almost to pure atmosphere and reflection, solid forms dissolving into glowing color and calm. Now in the Tate, Chichester Canal is a quiet, luminous evening reverie - one of his most serene meditations on light on water, the English landscape transfigured into a hushed expanse of apricot and silver where matter seems to turn to air.