Joseph Mallord William Turner was born in Covent Garden, London in 1775.
Known for his expressive colouring, imaginative landscapes and often turbulent scenes of Marine paintings.
He studied at The Royal Academy of Arts later becoming a professor there. A private and reclusive character, he opened his own gallery in 1804.
This painting shows the final journey of The Temeraire as it is towed from Kent along the River Thames where it was to be scrapped.
This veteran warship played an important part in The Battle of Trafalgar. 
It is thought that Turner never actually witnessed the scene but recreated it from imagination and reports he had heard.
The vessel is set against a blazing sunset with it's reflection shimmering on the sea. A powerful image of the last voyage of this ship which takes on a greater symbolic meaning as the age of sailing gives way to steam.
Turner kept this painting in his studio until his death, it now hangs in The National Gallery in London.