Edmund Carr · No. 177

Fire on the Water

Fire on the Water is a painting that burns. Edmund Carr sets the sea ablaze with the reflected light of a sinking sun, the horizon dissolving entirely into radiant orange, scarlet and molten gold, the water a sheet of trembling fire. Carr works in the luminous Romantic tradition where Turner pushed colour and light to the very edge of abstraction; here form all but vanishes, leaving only the incandescent glow of evening on the open sea. A distant vessel or two may be glimpsed as dark slivers against the blaze, but the true subject is the light itself, overwhelming and sublime. The thin, glowing washes seem lit from behind, the whole canvas pulsing with heat. There is grandeur and a touch of melancholy in it — the daily death of the sun rendered as spectacle. Radiant, immersive and almost abstract, it turns a sunset into an event of pure colour. It is among the most dramatic works in the series, a wall set alight by the dying day.

An original oil painting on canvas by Edmund Carr, painted to order — never a reproduction. Atmospheric Romanticism — luminous skies, storms and seas where light dissolves form, in the sublime tradition of Turner.

Artist

Edmund Carr

Medium

Oil on canvas

Finish

Unframed, ready to hang or frame

Made

To order, by hand