It's been good to see a wide range of different pieces in this series.

I have always loved that painting and always pondered the Turner's decision to paint it in 1815, three years after the event. I came to believe that the April 30th 1812 eruption, for Turner, became a violent visual analogy of the turbulent era. He painted it around the end of the 1812 War (1815), a war that was a minor distraction for the UK, but meant a great deal to the US. Britain, of course had its hands full with Napoleon – Europe was eff…