Turner’s The Fighting Temeraire [National Gallery]

IT was a famous moment in London history – when a steam tug took one of the Royal Navy’s best known ships, HMS Temeraire, up the Thames to be broken up, thousands of people lined the river’s banks.

And JMW Turner committed the moment of the end of an illustrious vessel that had fought at the Battle of Trafalgar to canvas.

Turner’s famous The Fighting Temeraire was named by Michael Palin as his favourite piece of work in the National Gallery. Speaking on Friday night, as part of the gallery’s Picture This series, the Gospel Oak-based broadcaster and actor revealed the painting was linked with a childhood memory.

“When I was growing up, I knew nothing about art or what paintings I liked,” said Palin.

“In my home in Sheffield there was a print of Turner’s The Fighting Temeraire hanging on the wall in the dining room. It was a constant part of my childhood but I knew nothing about the picture. It’s now one of my favourites.”

It’s never too late to get interested in art, he said. “My parents didn’t take me to art galleries, they never got me excited about art. I loved writing but was not good at art at school. I now get great enjoyment from art and often just walk through the National Gallery on my way somewhere else.”

The Fighting Temeraire, tugged to her last berth to be broken up, 1838, is a stylised rendition of an actual event, explained the actor. HMS Temeraire was sold to John Beatson in August, 1838, for £5,530 and then transported up the Thames to his shipbreaking yard at Rotherhithe.

It attracted huge crowds due to the 98-gun ship’s fighting role in the Battle of Trafalgar, where it rescued Nelson’s flagship, HMS Victory, and captured two French battleships.

The ship, which was launched in 1798, also saw service as a prison ship, a guard ship and a temporary berth for new naval recruits. Today, it graces the back of a £20 note.

“I think Turner is absolutely brilliant” enthused Palin. “He’s ahead of other painters, especially his way with light. His paintings are abstract, almost impressionist.”

Michael Palin

The painting offers an intriguing game of spot the difference – Turner made a number of changes from reality to enhance the dramatic effect. Unlike in The Fighting Temeraire, the ship’s masts and rigging had been removed before her sale, she was towed by two tugboats and, here Palin scored a point for noting: “the funnel in the tugboat was actually behind the mast and not in front”.

The painting was one of five exhibited by Turner at the Royal Academy summer exhibition in 1839 and was an instant success. Palin read a contemporary quote from the art critic John Ruskin: “it is the last picture he ever painted with perfect power”.

The Python actor had his own verdict: “It has huge power, like the first frame of Star Wars.”

The Fighting Temeraire, which Turner gifted to the nation on his death in 1851, is full of symbolism. The beauty of the old ship contrasts with the dirty, blackened tugboat. The setting sun symbolises the end of an era, with sail giving way to steam, and it has been suggested that the ship represents the artist himself, a glorious past now coming to an end.

Palin admitted selecting one painting from the National Gallery was extremely difficult.

On his shortlist were Duccio’s The Annunciation, Giovanni Battista Moroni’s The Tailor – “I love it because it’s so simple” –and Self Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria by Artemisia Gentileschi. All of these show people in close-up, exquisite detail. “I love faces and imagining what the subject is thinking. The tailor, for example, seems to be looking at us and saying, ‘what’s your problem, mate?”’

Despite this fascination, Palin feels Turner wasn’t particularly good at figures. “I think he did big canvases so he wouldn’t have to paint people in detail,” he quipped.

Palin’s love of figures in art is reflected in his love of travel.

“I don’t visit art galleries when I’m abroad, there is no time, but I love watching the local people, how they look, how they move, their local customs. You can discover the country in your own way, like with the National Gallery.’

Review asked Palin to give his advice to young people in Camden who haven’t been exposed to art and see it as uninteresting or irrelevant. “Paintings show people like us. It doesn’t matter how old the painting is, the manners and attitudes of the sitter don’t change. It’s been the same throughout history. I suggest you choose one or two paintings in the National Gallery and focus on them, really spend time with them, rather than trudging past canvas after canvas.

“It’s so enriching and the building is right on your doorstep.”

• Andy Williamson is a historian and author