The Lake, Petworth: Sunset, Fighting Bucks

Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 

Title: The Lake, Petworth: Sunset, Fighting Bucks

Media:  Oil paint on canvas

Dimensions: 620 x 1460 mm 

Date: 1829

According to the website Biography, Joseph Mallord William Turner was born on 1775 in London. Since he was a sickly child he was sent to live with his uncles during his childhood but luckily that is where Turner started his artistic career painting landscapes. He was educated at the Royal Academy of England. At first his paintings were realistic but as he aged his artworks became more romantic and poetic so he is often "regarded as a predecessor of impressionism." 

I included this painting because according to the Huffington post it was used by scientists to predict how "man-made aerosols will affect climate change today."Using artwork to help scientists predict our future is something that I had never heard of before! Art is already used to help promote the causes and effects of global warming and now it can add to it's list a data for climate change scientists.

What scientists were analyzing from the artworks were the amounts of aerosols depicted. Ashes from a volcanic eruption or desert dust can "become suspended in the atmosphere." The particles that become suspended in the atmosphere are called aerosols and the presence of air pollutants can cause the sky to appear reddish and cause "less sunlight [to] reach the surface of the earth -- which can lead to cooler weather." Scientists noted that three years after the eruption of the volcano  Tambora, in Indonesia, painters such as Turner painted redder skies for up to three years. Scientists also stated that their analysis of paintings noted an increase of aerosols over the past 100 years. 
The Earth's atmosphere is becoming more polluted as years go on which is contributing to global warming-if you don't believe the research than look at the artwork.

http://www.biography.com/people/jmw-turner-40806 
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/26/secrets-earth-climate-famous-paintings_n_5021573.html
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-the-lake-petworth-sunset-fighting-bucks-t03883