Abandon Ship

Abandon Ship is a dramatic, tempestuous, glorious journey through art history. Spectacular paintings have transformed shipwrecks into powerful metaphors for human vulnerability. These works depict fear and bravery, hope and desperation, life and death - and people's struggle against immense danger.

Rocky coastlines and gales could reduce human ambitions to splinters. The sea has always held a special fascination. It carried people to new continents and enabled trade and progress. But the sea, dark and stormy, also represented a threat to human life. This magnificent book takes the reader on a journey spanning several centuries, from medieval mythical disasters via Romantic tragedies to shipwrecks in the contemporary realist era.

The paintings presented in the book are from many of the finest museums in the world, among them the Louvre in Paris, the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, the National Gallery in London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The introduction is written by Christine Riding, head of the curatorial department at London's National Gallery.