J. M. W. Turner's Ploughing up turnips, near Slough: the cultivation of cultural dissent

• Autores: Michele L. Miller
• Localización: Art bulletin, ISSN 0004-3079, Vol. 77, Nº 4, 1995, págs. 572-583
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Like much of Turner's oeuvre, this painting has usually been interpreted as totally apolitical or mildly patriotic. This article argues instead that it is a far from optimistic assessment of the progressive agriculture promoted by George III, and it is better understood as deeply critical of the social consequences of enclosure. Turner's juxtaposition of turnip cultivation and Windsor Castle, the ragged workers, the implied allusions to the Slough of Despond, the contemporary association of turnips with poverty and with satire directed against the Hanoverian kings, all serve to indict progressive agriculture as a source of increased hardship among the laboring poor.