page_title: Snow Storm: Steam-Boat off a Harbour's Mouth
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Snow Storm: Steam-Boat off a Harbour's Mouth / History
caption_attribution_description: English: The Paddle Steamer 'Ariel' A scene showing shipping on the Wirral, now known as New Brighton, Liverpool. In the background is the Perch Rock Fort and Lighthouse. Other shipping is also depicted, including another paddle steamer on the left, together with smaller sailing boats. The paddle steamer in the painting has always thought to have been the ‘Ariel’. Formerly called the ‘Arrow’ she was built in 1821-22, and went into straight into service at Dover. She was transferred to the mail service in April 1825 and it is possible that she is shown visiting Liverpool between 1825-33 en route for Ireland. The ‘Arrow’ was taken over by the admiralty 1837 and renamed ‘Ariel’. She continued to be the Dover packet until 1846. A steam packet service from Liverpool to Kingstown was commended by the PO August 1826. There were four vessels on this route, ‘Dolphin’, ‘Comet’, ‘Etna’ and ‘Thetis’ and were built large enough to enable them to compete with steamships of private companies operating from Liverpool to Ireland. Since this painting shows a furled sail behind the funnel and the riser pipe from the boiler safety valves it is more likely to be one of the larger Liverpool Post Office packets such as the ‘Lightning’ which was the first PO steam packet to be ordered from Evans of Rotherhithe in 1820. The painting is signed and dated ‘Walters and Son 1831’. The Paddle Steamer 'Ariel'
context_page_description: Snow Storm, or Snow Storm: Steam-Boat off a Harbour's Mouth, is a painting by English artist Joseph Mallord William Turner from 1842.
  Though panned by many contemporary critics, critic John Ruskin commented in 1843 that it was "one of the very grandest statements of sea-motion, mist and light, that has ever been put on canvas".
context_section_description: An inscription on the painting relates that The Author was in this Storm on the Night the "Ariel" left Harwich. Turner later recounted a story about the background of the painting: 
  He was 67 years old at the time. Some later commentators doubt the literal truth of this account. Other critics accept Turner's account, and one wrote, "He empathized completely with the dynamic form of sovereign nature."
  This inscription allows us to better understand the scene represented and the confusion of elements.
  Turner had investigated the interactions between nature and the new technology of steamboats in at least five paintings in the previous decade. Throughout his career, Turner engaged with issues of urbanism, industry, railroads and steam power. The paddle steamer "Ariel" was formerly called the "Arrow", being built in 1821–22. In 1837 she was acquired by the Admiralty and renamed "Ariel", and was used as the Dover packet up to 1846.
  Early critical response to the painting was largely negative, with one critic calling it "soapsuds and whitewash". John Ruskin, the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, though, wrote in 1843 in his book Modern Painters that the painting was "one of the very grandest statements of sea-motion, mist and light, that has ever been put on canvas." Reportedly Turner was hurt by the criticism, repeating "soapsuds and whitewash" over and over again, and saying, "What would they have? I wonder what they think the sea's like? I wish they'd been in it". Ruskin commented, "It is thus, too often, that ignorance sits in judgment on the works of genius". More recently, art historian Alexandra Wettlaufer wrote that the painting is one of Turner's "most famous, and most obscure, sublime depictions".
  Currently in the collection of the Tate in London, it was on exhibition at the De Young Museum in San Francisco in 2015.
caption: The Paddle Steamer Ariel, painted by Samuel Walters in 1831
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