The English romantic painter J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851) is known and admired for portraying the transcendent power and turbulence of nature in his paintings of landscapes and storms at sea. But, as William S. Rodner's beautifully illustrated book makes clear, Turner also drew inspiration from the sweeping new forces of the Industrial Revolution that were to transform Britain and the world during his lifetime.

Rodner considers Turner's paintings of machine subjects as invaluable visual sources for understanding the impact of the Industrial Revolution. He assesses the full range of Turner's industrial art and the context of its creation, examining particular facets of Turner's concern with industrialism. Such paintings as Rain, Steam, and Speed and Snow Storm: Steamboat off a Harbour's Mouth reveal the confidence and the anxiety associated with the period's wrenching social and economic transformations. Machines and workshops became sophisticated metaphors for human aspiration and weakness.

Turner's industrial paintings were consistent with the larger themes that influenced his art, and in depicting the contest between steam power and environmental forces, he is unerring in his belief that nature always emerges triumphant.