The Vision of Jacob’s Ladder (?)

By about 1830 Turner was in his mid-fifties and painting light more than anything solid, letting objects blur into glow. Here that habit is pushed hard. A figure kneels before a bright diagonal that climbs into the sky, with winged shapes moving along it, and the scene reads as a biblical night vision, Jacob dreaming of a ladder set between earth and heaven. What no one can confirm is that this is really what Turner intended. He left no settled title, and the name was attached afterwards, which is why the Tate still prints it with a question mark. The picture came to the nation in 1856 through the vast bequest Turner made in his will, thousands of works he had kept about him in his own studio.