Art, Symbol & Imagination
At a Shipwreck: Terror and Practical Help
Three shapes compare responses to the same imagined or reported shipwreck rather than depicting the wreck itself. The authors assign the scattered grey forms to terror and anxious self-preservation, and the firmer coloured shape to an officer concentrating on the safety of others. Yellow and green connect practical thought with sympathy within the book's symbolic colour system. No identifiable ship or independently documented accident is established here, so the plate is best understood as an illustration of the authors' contrast between panic and purposeful assistance, not a reconstruction of a known maritime disaster.
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Citation
"At a Shipwreck: Terror and Practical Help" [editorial title]. In Thought-Forms, Annie Besant and C. W. Leadbeater. 1905, Theosophical Publishing Society. Source scan leaf 39. Lumitheca. /gallery/image/art-thought-shipwreck
Source details
Editorial title and description. Source details from the Library catalogue.
The three components form one complete design. The text supplies the officer's role but does not securely identify a historical wreck.
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From the book
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At a Shipwreck: Terror and Practical Help. Thought-Forms. Scan leaf 39. Lumitheca. https://lumitheca.com/gallery/image/art-thought-shipwreck