Is it possible to distinguish sunrise from sunset from an image (i.e. with no knowledge of the direction in the sky or time of day, and in a time frame with no discernible solar motion)? (continued)
Quentin Macilray
Poole, Dorset, UK
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Speaking from experience in a previous incarnation on an early morning postal round, I can report that the colours of the early morning are incomparably more delicate and varied than those of the sunset. They range from grey to violet to subdued purplish to many shades of green and orangish and finally gold, and there are hundreds of gradations in between.
I have never seen this reproduced or even suggested in any work of art, and I suspect it is impossible to capture on film.
Graham Turner
Dunedin, New Zealand
Your correspondent John Welford (18 March) expresses doubt about the depiction of a sunset in the painting The Fighting Temeraire, set on the river Thames, by J. M. W. Turner (no relation).
In the northern latitude of London, the sun’s daily path from east to west traces an arc in the sky, from left to right, centred on the south point of the horizon.
So has Turner shown a sunrise or a sunset? Cleverly, he has also shown the crescent moon, to the left of the sun, and higher in the sky. Since the sun and moon follow (roughly) the same path, we must be looking at the right-hand end of the arc: a sunset in the west.
As your correspondent points out, the symbolism is powerful – the sunset of a sailing vessel as the Temeraire is towed to the breaker’s yard by a scruffy little steam-tug.
Alas, from my perspective in the southern hemisphere city of Dunedin, New Zealand, this painting depicts a sunrise, since the eastern end of the arc is at the right. The symbolism is shattered, and I see instead the sunrise of commercial steam. Not at all the message Turner intended.
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