Rotterdam Ferry-Boat《鹿特丹渡轮》

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.

这是一张横幅风景画。画面上，波涛汹涌的大海中，一艘客运渡轮向一侧倾斜，黄褐色船帆因反射阳光而显得尤为明亮；海面上至少还有八艘帆船，远处海岸一线隐现一座城镇。

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蓝色，向地平线延伸时颜色越变越浅——地平线在画面由下往上不到四分之一处。

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.

画面中下方，正对观画者的是那艘客运渡轮的船舷，船上九人有男有女还有小孩，他们分成两群各自聚拢。人们的衣着颜色各异，有黑有白、有红有蓝；他们似乎都戴着帽子，不过帽子画得比较粗略。浪峰拍打倾斜的船舷，溅起白色的泡沫。

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.

画面左边，海面上漂浮着几艘略大的船只，都扬着白帆。右边，一艘三桅军舰紧紧收拢船帆，桅杆上飘扬着大小不一的七面旗帜；船舷处可见两排二十多门黑色火炮的炮管从炮门伸出；船身正直，似乎距离远处海岸边的城镇更近，那道海岸横亘画面的右半部。

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.

城镇建筑是用白色线条勾勒出的松散轮廓。还有很多零散分布的垂直线条暗示港口停靠着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.

大部分天空云层堆叠，既有乳白色的云，也有些浅灰色的云——只有画面右上角露出一方无云的蓝天。

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

这幅海景画于1833年在英国皇家美术学院展出，当时透纳在学院担任透视学教授。

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.

要在一片平淡无奇的水域构建一种可信的空间感是个难题，为此，透纳以一艘小型客运渡轮为基点做了精心设计。从前景的这个焦点出发，波浪起伏的大海上，一系列大型船只沿斜线向后排开，由此产生一种绝妙的纵深错觉。

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.

那艘军舰上的荷兰国旗和鹿特丹的天际线是透纳在向前辈——17世纪荷兰的海景画家——致敬。尤其是画中那低矮的地平线和漫天云卷的远景，其创作灵感来源于扬·凡·戈因和阿尔伯特·库普描绘的海港景色。

1扬·凡·戈因（1596—1656），荷兰黄金时期最著名的风景画家。  2阿尔伯特·库普（1620—1691），荷兰黄金时期杰出的风景画家。