Shipping in a breeze 

Jules Dupré painted 'Shipping in a Breeze,' capturing a slice of 19th-century maritime life. The canvas vibrates with movement, wind, and wave, typical of the Romantic era's embrace of nature's power. But let’s consider the broader currents at play. These boats, romantic as they seem, were the lifeblood of global trade and unfortunately also colonialism. As Dupré situated himself within the Barbizon School, he was pushing against academic traditions, and trying to capture the feeling of being in nature. Yet the work also evokes the economic and social realities of maritime labour. Those ships, those sailors, were the engines of a world that often ignored their sacrifices. Dupre asks us to consider our relationship to nature. We see his emotional response, and feel the drama of his sky. But it’s also a scene of labour. The painting invites us to reflect on our relationship to both the beauty and the cost of this world, a world shaped by both nature and human activity.