Rotterdam Ferry-Boat《鹿特丹渡輪》

A passenger boat， its bright tan sails reflecting the sun， careens among choppy water with at least eight more sailboats and a town along the water’s edge in the distance in this horizontal landscape painting.

這是一張橫幅風景畫。畫面上，波濤洶涌的大海中，一艘客運渡輪向一側傾斜，黃褐色船帆因反射陽光而顯得尤為明亮；海面上至少還有八艘帆船，遠處海岸一線隱現一座城鎮。

The water closest to us is muted slate blue， and it lightens as it extends to the horizon， which comes less than a quarter of the way up this composition.

近景的海水是柔和的灰藍色，向地平線延伸時顏色越變越淺——地平線在畫面由下往上不到四分之一處。

We look onto the long side of the passenger boat， at nine men， women， and children huddled in two groups there， in the lower center of the composition. The people wear black， white， red， or blue， and all seem to wear hats， though they are sketchily painted. Foamy， white crests lap at the long side of the tilted boat.

畫面中下方，正對觀畫者的是那艘客運渡輪的船舷，船上九人有男有女還有小孩，他們分成兩群各自聚攏。人們的衣著顏色各異，有黑有白、有紅有藍；他們似乎都戴著帽子，不過帽子畫得比較粗略。浪峰拍打傾斜的船舷，濺起白色的泡沫。

Several larger ships with white sails unfurled float beyond to our left. To our right， seven flags and banners fly from a three-masted ship with its sails tied up. Two rows of more than a dozen black cannons each poke through doors along the side we can see. It floats upright， closer to the distant town lining the water across the right half of the picture.

畫面左邊，海面上漂浮著幾艘略大的船只，都揚著白帆。右邊，一艘三桅軍艦緊緊收攏船帆，桅桿上飄揚著大小不一的七面旗幟；船舷處可見兩排二十多門黑色火炮的炮管從炮門伸出；船身正直，似乎距離遠處海岸邊的城鎮更近，那道海岸橫亙畫面的右半部。

The buildings are painted with strokes of white paint to create loose silhouettes. Loosely painted vertical strokes suggest more boats and ships lining the harbor.

城鎮建筑是用白色線條勾勒出的松散輪廓。還有很多零散分布的垂直線條暗示港口停靠著更多大大小小的船只。

A bank of cream-white and some pale gray clouds fill most of the sky， breaking to reveal blue sky only in the upper right corner of the painting.

大部分天空云層堆疊，既有乳白色的云，也有些淺灰色的云——只有畫面右上角露出一方無云的藍天。

This seascape was exhibited in 1833 at the Royal Academy， where Turner taught as the professor of perspective.

這幅海景畫于1833年在英國皇家美術學院展出，當時透納在學院擔任透視學教授。

Conquering the problem of creating a believable sense of space across a featureless expanse of water， Turner anchored the carefully aligned design upon a small passenger ferry. From this foreground focus， a row of larger ships moves backward over the choppy waves on a diagonal line， generating a remarkable illusion of depth.

要在一片平淡無奇的水域構建一種可信的空間感是個難題，為此，透納以一艘小型客運渡輪為基點做了精心設計。從前景的這個焦點出發，波浪起伏的大海上，一系列大型船只沿斜線向后排開，由此產生一種絕妙的縱深錯覺。

The warship’s Dutch flags and the skyline of Rotterdam pay tribute to Turner’s predecessors， the marine painters of seventeenth-century Holland. In particular， the low horizon and cloud-swept vista derive from harbor scenes by Jan van Goyen1 and Aelbert Cuyp2.

那艘軍艦上的荷蘭國旗和鹿特丹的天際線是透納在向前輩——17世紀荷蘭的海景畫家——致敬。尤其是畫中那低矮的地平線和漫天云卷的遠景，其創作靈感來源于揚·凡·戈因和阿爾伯特·庫普描繪的海港景色。

1揚·凡·戈因（1596—1656），荷蘭黃金時期最著名的風景畫家。" 2阿爾伯特·庫普（1620—1691），荷蘭黃金時期杰出的風景畫家。