Off Topic: A forgotten painting of a world gone wrong Eurogamer.net If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy. Off Topic: A forgotten painting of a world gone wrong Yeah, straight from the top of my dome. Feature by Christian Donlan Features Editor Updated on 13 Dec 2021 One of my favourite paintings in the world isn't very good. It's not actively bad, and it's far better than anything I could do, it's just not very good. It's a long way from great, comfortably non-brilliant. The gallery that owns it doesn't even have it on display most of the time. For most of its life on Earth I suspect it will be filed somewhere in the quiet dark. I saw it when it was briefly on display, however. And I loved it immediately. Around the turn of the century - I love that I have lived through a period of time where I can just drop that phrase in - Tate Britain held an exhibition on Turner's paintings of Venice. I took my mum, for some reason. She absolutely hates Turner. Sadly, the exhibition didn't give me much ammunition to change her mind. Turner's paintings of Venice at their very best are merely odd: he occasionally captures something weird in the mixture of a radioactive sunset, distant buildings rising from the water covered with glittering lights, and people moving around on delicate boats, and for a second in these instants, you get to see the human race from the outside, as it were. In these moments we look elegant, dimly alien, serene and fantastical. I don't know if that was his intention. Most of his other paintings of Venice - and I say this as a big fan of Turner - are a bit dull. The painting I want to talk about though isn't by Turner. Turner's such a superstar that even his off moments tend to end up on a gallery wall somewhere. Instead, and possibly because the curators of the Venice show knew they were dealing with patchy material, there was a room at the exhibition devoted to depictions of Venice by Turner's contemporaries. One of these turned out to be one of my favourite paintings in the whole world. Subscribe to Eurogamer to read this article Get your first month for £1 (normally £3.99) when you buy a Standard Eurogamer subscription. Enjoy ad-free browsing, merch discounts, our monthly letter from the editor, and show your support with a supporter-exclusive comment flair! Support us View supporter archive More Features Digital Foundry Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090: a new level in graphics performance The Digital Foundry video review - and how the new GPU champion delivers for 4K 120fps gaming. Feature Evercore Heroes wants to wind people up the right way "There's less rage at them, because they didn't end your fun." Feature What games get wrong about horses And what they could do about it. 28 Feature Shout out to all the Overwatch supports - where would we be without you? Merci. 55 Latest Articles Digital Foundry Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090: a new level in graphics performance The Digital Foundry video review - and how the new GPU champion delivers for 4K 120fps gaming. Feature Evercore Heroes wants to wind people up the right way "There's less rage at them, because they didn't end your fun." Google announces cloud gaming Chromebooks less than a fortnight after Stadia shutdown GeForce Now preinstalled. 4 Genshin Impact Path of Gleaming Jade dates, login event rewards Including other anniversary rewards and how to claim them. Supporters Only Premium only Off Topic: Take a minute to appreciate Cookin' with Coolio's incredible scallops recipe. What a great book. Premium only Off Topic: Reading City of Glass in comic form "Where exactly am I going?" Premium only Off Topic: Il Buco is a transporting film about a really big hole Underlands. Off-Topic Netflix handled Sandman brilliantly It was Dreamy. 9 Buy things with globes on them And other lovely Eurogamer merch in our official store! Explore our store