J.M.W Turner’s Snow Storm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps, photo courtesy of Tate
Background:
Snow Storm: Hannibal and His Army Crossing the Alps is an oil painting on canvas by J.M.W. Turner first exhibited in 1812. Though Turner travelled a lot as an artist, I will assume he made this piece in London as the place of its making is unknown. The Tate Gallery label for this piece states that “for Turner, the figure of Hannibal… had powerful associations with Napoleon.” Both Napoleon and Hannibal are men who had great military success and military failure. Snow Storm: Hannibal and His Army Crossing the Alps strips these military legends of their success in its depiction of inevitable human surrender to nature.
Analysis:
To me, Turner’s painting is ominous and evokes feelings of awe at nature’s vengeance. Turner details the fearful soldiers in order to contrast them with the jagged shape of snow that comes to meet them. The dark background of the trees and hillside is what makes the soldiers on the left stand out more than the ones on the far right. Even though the soldiers stand out from their background, this is only for them to represent the humanity that the wave of snow is going to destroy. In the left side of the painting, the line of trees and the darkness of the bottom part of the wave creates a pointy sideways triangle with curved sides emphasizing all of the points in the painting: the rocks near the soldiers pointing up, the rocky hillside, and the wave of snow itself. The sun is a completely round shape that opposes the rest of the pointed or jagged shapes, but it is an unhealthy dark yellow color that’s feeble power extends only to the yellowish tint above the tree line. In contrast, the snow is a dark enough blue to make it feel dangerous and unfriendly. It is suspended as a jagged shape, which creates the sense of dread as it overhangs the soldiers. This makes it seem like the snow storm will crash onto the rocks whether or not they are present, caring nothing about their lives.
On the same webpage where the Tate displays Snow Storm: Hannibal and His Army Crossing the Alps, they provided background information to the painting, including Turner’s displeasure when it was first exhibited hanging above a doorway since he wanted it hung lower. I agree with Turner that his painting and its message about the helplessness of humanity should be hung where people see that the soldiers in it are their equals.
Citation Notes:
Tate. “’Snow Storm: Hannibal and His Army Crossing the Alps’, Joseph Mallord William Turner, Exhibited 1812.” Tate, Feb. 2010, http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-snow-storm-hannibal-and-his-army-crossing-the-alps-n00490.
Turner, JMW. “Snow Storm: Hannibal and His Army Crossing the Alps.” Tate, Feb. 2010, Tate Museum, London, http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-snow-storm-hannibal-and-his-army-crossing-the-alps-n00490.
*Tate museum allowed their photo to be shared so long as the creative commons license CC-BY-NC-ND 3.0 (Unported) was mentioned and a link to their homepage was provided.*
Eye of Alby 
I love this painting as well. Your right, when you have very powerful armies pitted against Mother Nature, the just don’t stand a chance. I really liked that you pointed out the fact that most things in the painting are fairly jagged, and that the sun is a perfectly little round orb in the sky that kind of contradicts everything else.
I really loved how Turner used colors to accent everything. How the snow is a deep dark blue, and the sun is a pale dark yellow that is being blotted out by the snow. The plane hillsides depict such hopelessness for the soldiers. But one thing I love about it, is off in the distance, the sun is still shinning, and the clouds are nice and fluffy. Its like the soldiers where in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The funny thing about this painting is that I had to do a triple take on it. I read the title about it being a snow storm, but it really looks like an army on the coast with massive waves about to crash down upon them. It took me awhile to see snow I guess.
I did take a look at your citations and noticed one small thing that could be fixed with them. It has to do with ‘hanging text’. The second line, and following lines, below the first need to be indented. If you have any questions you can reference a website called OWL Purdue. They are an extremely reputable place that knows everything about writing MLA and APA papers. They were recommended to me by my last research paper instructor from UAF. Here is the link to the web site if you want it. https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/08/
Loved your post
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Alana, I love this painting! I get the dismal feeling of the battle happening as the weather plays out its own dreary tune. I love how Turner depicts the storm clouds as they are about to blot out the sun, almost as to cover up the shame of the ongoing onslaught.
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