The Parting of Hero and Leander

The Parting of Hero and Leander, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1837 at the National Gallery, demonstrates Turner's mature integration of mythological subject matter with the golden Mediterranean atmospheric light he had been developing since his first Italian visits of 1819. The ancient Greek myth of Hero and Leander — the lovers separated by the Hellespont, Leander drowned attempting the crossing — gave Turner a subject of maritime tragedy embedded in a landscape of ancient beauty and warm southern light. By 1837 his late style was at its most resolved: the figures are suggestions within an atmospheric golden haze, the mythological content providing a literary scaffolding for pure chromatic experience. The National Gallery's holding of this work alongside the early architectural and marine subjects allows visitors to trace the full arc of Turner's development from the careful observation of his youth to the atmospheric dissolution of his maturity — one of the most dramatic individual transformations in the history of European painting.

The luminous, golden atmosphere transforms the mythological scene into a vision of romantic splendor. Turner's treatment of the sea and sky dissolves the distinction between water and air, creating a dreamlike setting for the lovers' farewell.