The fighting temeraire (1839) hms temeraire was a 98gun secondrate warship of the royal navy which is famous for its heroic performance in the 1805 battle of trafalgar between u. K. And the combined fleets of french and spanish navies. J. M. W. Turner depicts the warship, years after its glorious days, being pulled by a tugboat, to be broken into scraps. The painting pays a tribute to sailing ships as they were going to be replaced by steampowered vessels. Turner uses symbolism, like the setting sun, to suggest the demise of the subject and its mortality despite its heroic past. Painted by turner at the prime of his career, the fighting temeraire is his most famous painting and the one he referred to as his darling. In 2005, it was voted as britains favourite painting in a poll organized by the bbc. Joseph mallord william turner (17751851) was one of the most important english romantic painters of the 19th century. He is known for his expressive colourisations, imaginative landscapes and turbulent, often violent marine paintings. He was championed by the leading english art critic john ruskin from 1840, and is today regarded as having elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivalling history painting. Turners imagination was sparked by shipwrecks, fires, and natural phenomena such as sunlight, storm, rain, and fog. He was fascinated by the violent power, turbulence and tidestorms of the sea. Its said that his last words before death were, the sun is god decor adventures brand creative, innovative, decorative wall decor frames with stateoftheart, fresh new themes, ideas features presenting a new range of wall decor frames made out of timeless classic paintings by world famous artists.