An exhibition at Newcastle-upon-Tyne’s Laing Art Gallery tells the story of the industrial landscape in art, explored through over 20 works by Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851), one of Britain’s greatest and most prolific painters.

The centrepiece work is The Fighting Temeraire, on loan from London’s National Gallery as part of its 200th birthday celebration. One of Turner’s best-known works, it shows the final journey of the ‘hero ship’ at the Battle of Trafalgar as it is towed along the River Thames to be broken up for scrap. Significantly for the northeast of England, with its industrial heritage, the two steam tugboats which pulled it in reality (only one is depicted in the painting) were manufactured on Tyneside. 

The exhibition also includes important pieces by other artists such as Tacita Dean, Chris Killip, L S Lowry and James McNeill Whistler.