The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons, 16 October 1834

J.M.W. Turner

Oil on canvas

Philadelphia Museum of Art

This magnificent oil painting captures the dramatic conflagration that consumed London's Houses of Parliament on October 16, 1834, as crowds gathered along the Thames to witness the horrifying spectacle. J.M.W. Turner, Britain's greatest Romantic painter and a master of light and atmosphere, witnessed the disaster firsthand and created this theatrical scene with towering flames reflected in the river, their brilliant swathes of color bordering on abstraction. Turner deliberately magnified the height of the flames to express humanity's helplessness against nature's destructive powers, making this work a stunning example of his revolutionary approach to landscape painting that would influence generations of artists including the Impressionists.