(site of the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich)

According to the usual practice for suggesting a walking figure, the sitter is represented at the moment when one of his legs is at its most backward position and about to be lifted forward

(it has been debated whether this pose is copied from the statue of the Apollo Belvedere http://harpy.uccs.edu/greek/hellsculpt.HTMl)

Vehicles in motion were frequently represented as if still, the wheels were rarely represented with turning spokes.

Movement was increasingly suggested by blurred shapes, a practice which developed under the influence of photography – when long exposure times were necessary, photos of moving objects were blurred and this became a conventional representation of movement.

Turner’s Rain, Steam and Speed uses this effect to suggest speed, whereas the funnel (though it is in motion) has sharp outlines: the observer’s attention focuses on it and, relatively, the surroundings seem to move.

In the above mentioned website, open the ‘picture viewer’ of the thumbnail of the painting to see the full screen image: the brushstrokes will be visible, showing Turner’s dynamic brushwork

(on this see the current exhibition at the National Gallery, Telling the Time: (http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/exhibitions/past/time.htm)