J.M.W. Turner is often remembered for his sweeping seascapes and golden-hued visions of southern England, but one of his most powerful and dramatic paintings was born from a snowstorm in Northern England.
Snow Storm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps might seem like a grand continental scene, but its emotional core was forged in Yorkshire, during a ferocious storm Turner witnessed in 1810 while staying at Farnley Hall.
Turner was a frequent guest at Farnley Hall, the home of his close friend and patron Walter Fawkes. Set in the Yorkshire countryside near Otley, the hall became something of a retreat for Turner, a place where he could work, reflect, and watch the ever-changing northern skies.
During one visit in 1810, Turner and Fawkes’s teenage son, Hawkesworth, stood together watching a violent snowstorm sweep across the landscape. Turner, sketchbook in hand, turned to the younger Fawkes and said something remarkable: that what they were witnessing would not be seen again for two years and that it would be titled Hannibal Crossing the Alps.
He meant it quite literally. The storm’s drama, its swirling energy, and its sense of chaos and scale stayed with him. Two years later, Turner unveiled Snow Storm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps, at The Royal Academy’s summer exhibition. It broke conventional rules of composition and Turner insisted that it was hung low so it was viewed from the correct angle. It was widely praised. Turner had visited the Alps himself back in 1802, during a period of relative peace in the Napoleonic Wars. He travelled through Savoy, sketched possible routes taken by Hannibal, and made studies of dramatic mountain passes. In 1804, he created a foreground study that would later be echoed in the final painting: elephants, soldiers, and rocky terrain.
But the sky? The storm? The heart of the composition? That came from Yorkshire.
The painting is less a historical re-enactment than a psychological storm. Turner doesn’t centre Hannibal, in fact, the general is far off in the distance: a tiny figure on a tiny elephant. Instead, the viewer is overwhelmed by a vast vortex of dark cloud and snow, echoing the storm that Turner and young Hawkesworth Fawkes had witnessed together at Farnley. Its history viewed through the lens of natural phenomena, myth retold through the atmosphere unleashed by Turner’s pallet.
That a Yorkshire snowstorm could transform into a scene of ancient warfare across the Alps, is testament to Turner’s visionary genius and to the power of Northern England as inspiration. The rugged landscapes around Farnley, the wild weather rolling across the moors, and the isolation of the hall itself all fed Turner’s imagination. Farnley Hall wasn’t just a peaceful place to sketch, it was a crucible of ideas. And that 1810 snowstorm was the inspiration for one of Turner’s most enduring images. No one painted the sky like J.M.W. Turner.
We're so proud that our designs inspired by Turner's incredible works can now be found in a number of galleries and museums across the country, including Harewood House, Turner's House (Sandycombe Lodge) and The Whitworth gallery.