Part 2

From 1793 to 1796 Turner’s advance in power was steady. His subjects were varied--English and Welsh cathedrals, old castles, ruined abbeys, village churches, country towns, waterfalls and trout streams--the latter generally with a bridge and always with an angler. He was himself a keen fisherman, and his anglers’ attitudes are always carefully drawn and at once recognisable. Occasionally some striking atmospheric effect, seen probably on the spot, is introduced. Sometimes the picture is strikingly enhanced by the play of sunlight, occasionally by boldly treated _chiaroscuro_. The architecture is invariably drawn with accuracy and taste, both as regards perspective and detail. His colouring was a dainty harmony of broken tints in pale blues, greens, browns, and neutral greys. Many good drawings of this time are in private collections, and the Print Room of the British Museum contains some fine examples which have been preserved from light, and are consequently in perfect, unfaded condition--notably _Lincoln and Worcester Cathedrals_, and _Tintern Abbey_. Most of the English cathedrals were drawn by him between 1793 and 1796, including, in addition to the two just named, Canterbury, Ely, Peterborough, Rochester, Salisbury, and York; as well as Bath, Kirkstall, Malmesbury, Malvern, Tintern, Ewenny, Llanthony, Waltham and many other abbeys, together with castles innumerable--all in the delicate, “tinted manner.” He also made a large number of studies of boats and shipping at Dover, one of which is reproduced here (Plate IV.). It was probably there and at Margate that he laid the foundation of the extraordinarily accurate knowledge of everything connected with the sea and shipping which distinguished him all his life.

His works of this early period are usually signed. The earliest signature known to me is the one alluded to on page 5, “W. Turner, 1786.” For the next few years he signed either simply “Turner,” or oftener “W. Turner,” occasionally adding the date. In 1799, when he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy, he changed to “W. Turner, A.R.A.,” and in 1802, on receiving the honour of full membership, he became “J. M. W. Turner, R.A.” A few years later he was appointed Professor of Perspective to the Royal Academy, and much to the amusement of his fellow academicians he now sometimes added “P.P.” In the works of his later life, it is the exception to find any signature.

In Turner’s drawings of this period, as in those of the early English water-colour school generally, one is struck by a freshness, a simplicity, a new outlook on nature, which contrast with the works of the classical painters who since the death of Rubens and the great Dutch landscapists--Van Goyen, Cuyp, Hobbema, Van der Capelle, De Koninck, and others--had for a century or more dominated European art. Landscape had come to be regarded more as a fitting background to classical story, and although often stately, was always more or less conventional. Now, Nature was beginning to be studied and painted for her own sake. Yet Turner, like Byron, throughout his life recognised that natural scenery _alone_ never makes a completely satisfying picture--always there must be some touch of the human element, some suggestion of human presence, human handiwork. This, however, is entirely a different point of view from that of the classical painters.

From the delicate tints which, up to 1795-6, had characterized the work of Turner, in common with that of his contemporaries of the English water-colour school, he passed, almost suddenly, in 1797, to a larger and stronger style and a bolder range of colour, although the latter was still limited as compared with the fuller tones of his middle and later years. At first, in 1796, the pale blues and greens were simply deepened and strongly accented, as was seen in the superb drawings of _Snowdon_ and _Cader Idris_ which were shown last year (1908) at the Franco-British Exhibition, and to some extent in the _Distant View of Exeter_, in the Tatham Sale of the same year. Soon, however, these tones were combined and contrasted with deep, rich, golden browns. In 1797, 1798, and 1799, Turner sent to the Royal Academy Exhibitions a series of magnificent drawings of large size, all showing a striking advance in range and power. Eight views of _Salisbury Cathedral_ painted for Sir R. Colt Hoare (two are in the Victoria and Albert Museum), the fine _Crypt of Kirkstall Abbey_ (Sloane Museum), the still finer _Warkworth_ (Victoria and Albert Museum) and the famous _Norham Castle_ (the late Mr. Laundy Walters), with several others, mark a new departure in his art. Turner always said that he owed his success in life to the _Norham Castle_. Thirty years later, when he was illustrating Scott’s works, and was the guest of Sir Walter at Abbotsford, walking up Tweedside one day in the company of Cadell the publisher, as they passed Norham Turner took off his hat. On Cadell asking the reason, he replied, “That picture made me.” Probably he considered that it was to its influence that he owed his election as an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1799, the year of its exhibition.

Some recent writers have contended that this great expansion of Turner’s art was due to the influence of his friend and companion Thomas Girtin, but they have adduced no evidence to support that theory. Girtin, it is needless to say, was a very great painter, and his early death in 1802 was a severe loss to English art. And no doubt he and Turner, in their constant intimacy, must have continually and considerably affected each other--indeed up to 1795 it is often exceedingly difficult to distinguish between the two men’s work. But, so far as I have been able to study Girtin’s early drawings, I cannot discover in those executed before 1797--the year which witnessed Turner’s new departure--any of the breadth and boldness which marked both men from 1797 onwards. Certainly no work of Girtin’s of 1796--the year previous--approaches in force Turner’s _Snowdon_ and _Cader Idris_, which already in design if not in colour herald his all-round expansion of 1797.

Nor does the current opinion of that day appear to support the view just alluded to--quite the contrary. The “St. James’s Chronicle” of 1797, after praising Turner’s _Transept of Ewenny Priory_ and _Choir of Salisbury Cathedral_ in the Royal Academy Exhibition of that year, goes on to remark that, “Mr. Girtin’s drawings in general _appear to be formed in the style of Turner_.” Again, “The Sun” of 1799 devotes a long paragraph to the eulogy of Turner’s _Carnarvon Castle_, concluding with the remark, “This is a drawing that Claude might be proud to own”; it then praises Girtin’s _Bethgellert_, but prefaces its notice with the observation “We do not remember to have seen the name of the artist before the present year. _The drawing is something after the style of the preceding artist_” [Turner]. Redgrave also effectually disposes of the question in “A Century of Painters,” 1866, Vol. II., page 402.

Moreover, Turner’s great drawings of 1797, 1798 and 1799 have characteristics which are not at all those of Girtin. Already there is visible something of that wonderful delicacy, that sense of mystery, of ‘infinity,’ that indefinable charm which we call ‘poetry,’ which distinguishes his work--and especially his work in water-colour--from that of every other landscape painter--work all the more remarkable in that it proceeded from a man born in a back lane off the Strand, without any education worthy of the name, and throughout his life unable to speak or write grammatically--yet withal a man of strong intellect, keenly ambitious, a reader, and a voluminous writer of poetry.

One drawing only of this period is reproduced here--_Distant View of Lichfield Cathedral_ (Plate V.). It suffers from the unavoidable reduction in size, but it is characteristic of Turner’s altered style. Unfortunately it has at some time been varnished, probably by the painter himself, as have two others equally important, of the same period--_The Refectory of Fountains Abbey_ and a replica of the _Cader Idris_--both of which are now in America. Gainsborough treated several of his drawings similarly, as did Girtin, Varley, Barrett and others of the early English school, their object being avowedly to rival in water-colour the depth and richness of oil painting. But not unfrequently, as here in the _Lichfield_, the varnish in time disintegrates the colouring matter and produces a curious _granulated_ look, not unlike aquatint. Indeed, the fine _Fountains Abbey_ just alluded to was sold not many years ago at a well-known London auction room, as a coloured aquatint, and fetched only £5.

After Turner’s election in 1799 as an Associate of the Royal Academy, he exhibited fewer water-colours and more oil pictures, although he was continually producing drawings, mostly of large size and on commission. For the next few years his style did not greatly alter, although a steady growth in power and range is visible. Several large views of _Edinburgh_ and its neighbourhood, a series of _Fonthill_ commissioned by Beckford, another of _Chepstow_ executed for the Earl of Harewood, together with the Welsh castles of _Conway_, _Carnarvon_, _St. Donat’s_ and _Pembroke_, are among the most important. The _Stonehenge_ reproduced here (Plate VII.) is probably the work of about 1803-1804.

He made also during this period a few drawings for engraving, but, with the exception of the well-known _Oxford Almanacks_, these were chiefly on a small scale and gave him but little scope; nor was he fortunate in his engravers until in James Basire, the engraver to the University, he met with an artist of higher standing. The University commissioned from Turner ten large drawings for the headings of the _Oxford Almanacks_, all of which he executed between 1798 and 1804. They are preserved in the University Galleries, and are noticeable alike for their architectural draughtsmanship, their admirable composition, and their general breadth of treatment.

About this time, and also in connection with a commission for engraving, he was first attracted to that Yorkshire scenery which was afterwards to have such an important influence on his career. Dr. Whitaker, the Vicar of Whalley, on the borders of Lancashire and Yorkshire, a wealthy and learned antiquary, required some illustrations for his forthcoming “History of the Parish of Whalley,” and Turner was recommended to him, it is said by a Harrogate bookseller, as a young artist of fast-rising reputation. It was during this visit that he made the acquaintance of Mr. Walter Fawkes, the squire of Farnley, near Leeds, at whose hospitable mansion, Farnley Hall, he was shortly to become a frequent and an honoured guest.

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It is time that reference should be made to the _sketches_, which form such an important part of the volume of Turner’s work in water-colour. From the outset of his career, on every journey, he made copious studies--at first mainly in pencil, but sometimes in water-colour and occasionally in crayon or oil--of every paintable spot he visited, keeping usually a separate pocket-book for each tour. The sketches were sometimes rapid, sometimes elaborate. Especially he made notes in colour of skies, clouds, water, and any striking atmospheric effects which he might chance to see. These although often slight, and usually swiftly executed, were nevertheless singularly accurate. In a pocket-book of 1798 I find twenty-five such, with a list describing each:--_Twilight_, _Clear_, _Rain Coming_, _Sunny_, _Crimsoned_, _Showery_, _Gathering after Fog_, and so on. These sketches and studies he continued to make and to store throughout his life, even up to his last journey on the Continent in 1845. By the decision of the Court of Chancery, at the end of a long litigation over his will, they were awarded--nineteen thousand in all--to be the property of the nation, and after many years delay they are now being admirably arranged and catalogued at the National Gallery by Mr. Finberg, who writes on them here. It is needless to say that to the student of Turner’s life work they are of the utmost interest and importance, and often--especially the later ones--of surpassing beauty. The examples which have recently (1908) been placed on view in the National Gallery are mostly of Turner’s earlier periods, but one or two belong to quite the close of his life; some are drawings nearly finished but discarded.

In 1802 Turner visited the Continent for the first time. He was naturally impressed with Calais, his first French town, and on his return he painted the well-known picture of _Calais Pier_ (National Gallery), and the still magnificent but now much darkened _Vintage at Mâcon_ (the Earl of Yarborough). But it was in Switzerland, Savoy and Piedmont that he spent most of his time, and the results may be seen in the fine drawings of Bonneville, Chamounix, and the Lake of Geneva in various collections, the _Falls of the Reichenbach_, the _Glacier and Source of the Arveron_, and others at Farnley, and the superb large body-colour sketches of _The Devil’s Bridge_ and the _St. Gothard Pass_, in the portfolios of the National Gallery. Three of his Swiss drawings he sent to the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1803.

From 1803 to 1812 he was continually receiving commissions, both for oil pictures and water-colours, from influential patrons, including the Earls of Egremont, Essex, Lonsdale, and Yarborough, Sir John Leicester, Sir John Soane, and other wealthy amateurs. In 1807 he started his well-known _Liber Studiorum_ in rivalry of the _Liber Veritatis_ of Claude Lorraine, which had recently been successfully reproduced in engraving by English publishers. For this he made about a hundred drawings in sepia--a colour he rarely used elsewhere--as guides for the professional engravers whom he employed on the work. Nearly all these drawings, which are mostly slight, are now in the National Gallery.

During the ten years between 1803 and 1812, Turner’s style in water-colour underwent a gradual, but a very considerable change. He left the dark blues and deep golden browns which, as we have seen, marked his first departure in 1797 from the “tinted manner” of his early days, and he gradually adopted a lighter and more natural range of colour. This new style is best seen in the work of what is known as his “Yorkshire period,” which began about 1809, and continued, with various developments, up to about 1820. His subjects were at first mainly taken from the neighbourhood of the stately house in the beautiful valley of the Wharfe which has become a place of pilgrimage to Turner students from all parts of the world--I refer, of course, to Farnley Hall. Its then owner, Mr. Walter Fawkes, was up to his death a kind friend and liberal patron of the painter, who was a frequent visitor at the house, and retained the friendship of the family down to his latest years. Farnley Hall is still filled with drawings by Turner of its surroundings, the neighbouring Wharfedale, important Swiss and other foreign landscapes, illustrations to Scott’s and Byron’s Poems, studies of birds, fish, etc. It also contains some important oil pictures by him. To one series of water-colours--the “Rhine Sketches”--I shall have occasion to refer later.

Ruskin admirably describes the characteristics of these ‘Yorkshire drawings’ (“Modern Painters,” Vol. I., pp. 124, 125):--

“Of all his [Turner’s] drawings, I think those of the Yorkshire series have the most heart in them, the most affectionate, simple, unwearied serious finishings of truth. There is in them little seeking after effect, but a strong love of place; little exhibition of the artist’s own powers or peculiarities, but intense appreciation of the smallest local minutiæ. These drawings have, unfortunately, changed hands frequently, and have been abused and ill-treated by picture-dealers and cleaners; the greater number are now mere wrecks. I name them not as instances, but proofs of the artist’s study in this district; for the affection to which they owe their origin must have been grounded long years before....

“It is, I believe, to these broad, wooded steeps and swells of the Yorkshire downs that we, in part, owe the singular massiveness that prevails in Turner’s mountain drawing, and gives it one of its chief elements of grandeur.... I am in the habit of looking to the Yorkshire drawings as indicating one of the culminating points of Turner’s career. In these he attained the highest degree of what he had up to that time attempted, namely, finish and quantity of form, united with expression of atmosphere, and light without colour. His early drawings are singularly instructive in this definiteness and simplicity of aim.” ... “Turner evidently felt that the claims upon his regard possessed by those places which first had opened to him the joy and the labour of his life could never be superseded. No alpine cloud could efface, no Italian sunshine outshine the memories of the pleasant days of Rokeby and Bolton; and many a simple promontory dim with southern olive, many a lone cliff that stooped unnoticed over some alien wave, was recorded by him with a love and delicate care that were the shadows of old thoughts and long-lost delights, whose charm yet hung like morning mist above the chanting waves of Wharfe and Greta.”

From 1809 to 1820, Turner’s powers were rapidly developing, and he was producing many important oil pictures, some of which--_The Frosty Morning_, _Crossing the Brook_, _Somer Hill_, _Walton Bridges_ and _Raby Castle_--were, perhaps, among the finest of his whole life. He was also busy with drawings for engraving--chiefly for book illustrations, and probably for this reason he seems to have executed comparatively few water-colours for commissions or for sale. One, however, the magnificent _Chryses_ (Mrs. T. Ashton), which he sent to the Royal Academy in 1811, calls for notice. It is a large, impressive work, closely resembling in design the _Glaucus and Scylla_ of the _Liber Studiorum_, but on a broader and nobler scale; the colour-scheme intermediate between that of his early and his middle time. What is so remarkable is its extraordinary _Greek_ feeling. Colour apart, it at once recalls the scenery and the sentiment of the Greek Islands, although Turner never in his life saw them. Many will remember the effect which the drawing produced in the Winter Exhibition of 1887 at Burlington House. Mr. Morland Agnew’s beautiful _Scarborough_, reproduced here (Plate VIII.), also belongs to this period.

One of Turner’s earliest series of book illustrations was his “Southern Coast of England,” which he began about 1812 and continued to 1826. He agreed with W. B. Cooke, a fine line-engraver and an enterprising publisher, to supply forty drawings of views along the coast, from the Nore on the east to the Bristol Channel on the west; many other leading water-colour artists of the day--De Wint, Clennell, Prout, and others--being also contributors. Turner was to receive seven and a half guineas apiece for the drawings, which were of small size; but although this price was soon raised to ten, and later to twelve guineas, he became dissatisfied, and broke with Cooke, who, however, judging from the correspondence, appears to have treated him fairly. He had, moreover, given him many other commissions for drawings and had held exhibitions of these, and the engravings from them, at his rooms in Soho Square.

The Southern Coast drawings are elaborate, highly finished, and in a rather warmer tone of colour than hitherto. Many are extremely beautiful, but in some there is visible that crowding of lights and foreground figures, which from this time onwards is not unfrequent in Turner’s work. The majority of the drawings are now, alas, so faded as to give but little idea of their pristine beauty. What they all were like originally, may still be seen in the beautiful _Clovelly Bay_ in the National Gallery of Ireland (Vaughan Bequest), and in the _Lulworth Cove_ reproduced here (Plate IX.).

About the same time, Turner made a fine series of drawings, all on a large scale, of the beautiful country which lies inland among the hills, between Hastings and Tunbridge Wells. These were commissions from a well-known and eccentric M.P., “Jack Fuller,” whose country-seat “Rose Hall” (now known as “Brightling Park”) lies in the heart of that neighbourhood. Four were effectively engraved as coloured aquatints, but were never published; the rest were reproduced as Line Engravings in the “Views of Hastings and its Vicinity” (afterwards called “Views in Sussex”), published a few years later. The series remained for a long time unbroken, but it was dispersed at Christie’s last year (1908). All the “Sussex” drawings were of the highest quality, sober in colour and treatment, as befitted the character of the scenery, but the majority have been badly faded by long years of exposure to sunlight.

Somewhat similar in character to the “Southern Coast” drawings, but a little later and even more highly finished, is a series which Turner made in 1818-1819 from _camera obscura_ sketches by Hakewill, an architect, to illustrate the latter’s “Picturesque Tour in Italy,” published in 1820. Ruskin, who possessed many of these, ranked them very highly and frequently alludes to them in “Modern Painters” and elsewhere. In the “Notes on his Drawings by J. M. W. Turner, R.A., 1878,” his last important work on art, he describes them (p. 22) as “a series which expresses the mind of Turner in its consummate power, but not yet in its widest range. Ordering to himself still the same limits in method and aim, he reaches under these conditions the summit of excellence, and of all these drawings there is but one criticism possible--they ‘cannot be better done’.” By the kindness of Mr. Morland Agnew, two of the “Hakewill” series, _The Lake of Nemi_ (Plate XI.) and _Turin from the Superga_ (Plate XII.), are reproduced here.