CHAPTER XXXIII

1827: AGED FIFTY-TWO

HE PAINTS THE SEA IN THE OPEN, AND SOME THAMES-SIDE PICTURES

In this year Turner is magnificently himself again. His works show an extraordinary variety, ranging from the peaceful and unambitious twin pictures of 'Mortlake Terrace,' one on a Summer Morning, the other on a Summer Evening, to the ambitious and extravagant 'Rembrandt's Daughter,' wherein the painter pitted himself against the great Dutchman; but the most welcome work of Turner at this period, and probably that which gave him the greatest pleasure, arose from his sojourn at East Cowes Castle with J. Nash, the architect of the Quadrant, Regent Street, for whom he painted two yachting pictures with East Cowes Castle in the background.

We can see the beginnings of his magnificent series of yachting pictures in the Sketch-Books of this year, particularly in those labelled 'East Cowes Castle' and 'Yachts.' These studies resulted in the two pictures of East Cowes Castle, exhibited in 1828, one of which is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum--gold in the sky, gold in the foreground, and the golden sun in the centre of the picture. I for one prefer the studies to the pictures--brisk, impulsive atmospheric works, a delight to the eye. These nine studies, which include the vivid and amusing 'Between Decks,' are now in the Turner Gallery at Millbank. They were among the 'unfinished' works exhibited for the first time in 1906. A note to the official catalogue states that--

'These nine pictures were painted on two pieces of canvas measuring 3 feet by 4 feet. Nos. 1993, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001 on one piece, and Nos. 1994, 1997, 1998, 1999 on the other. Mr. Finberg has communicated a copy of the following letter, which probably refers to these two canvases; it is in the possession of C. Mallord Turner, Esq., who has kindly consented to allow it to be published.

_'"Sunday._

'"I wrote yesterday to Mr. Newman to get a canvas ready--6 feet by 4 feet. I wish you to call and ask if he has it by him and if he gets it done by Middleton in St. Martin's Lane, or at home. If by Middleton, then let two be sent; if he does it at home, then he will be some time about it, and then tell him if he has by him a whole length canvas to send it instead of preparing the 6 feet 4 canvas. If he has not then go to Middleton, and if he has one, a whole length canvas, let him send it me immediately. I want the canvas only I don't want the stretching-frame made in town if Middleton or Newman has the canvas ready done, and if a whole length, let either send it down to me at J. Nash, Esq. East Cowes Castle, Isle of Wight.

If they are both ready send them together rolled up on a small roller and put the linen things I wrote for on the outside.

"I want some scarlet lake and Dark Lake and Burnt Umber in powder from Newman's, one ounce each.

1 ounce of mastic. To Mr. Turner, Queen Anne Street, Cavendish Square."'

Turner is now painting the sea in the open air, not in a studio as in the 'Calais Pier' days. The boats in the two pictures of 'Yacht Racing in the Solent' are sailing in broken water, their canvases lit and flecked by sunlight. In No. 2 may be seen the guard-ship moored under the cliffs upon which East Cowes Castle stands. Each of these fresh and direct impressions of nature is a small picture, one measuring 1 foot 5 1/2 inches by 2 feet 4 1/2 inches, the other 1 foot 6 inches by 2 feet. In 'Shipping at Cowes' No. 1, he has chosen a still moment. It is the morning of the Regatta; the sun is in the position where Turner loved to place it, in the centre of the sky; the boats are at their moorings and we see only a few sailors preparing for the day's work. This small picture was probably a sketch for the 'Regatta at Cowes,' exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1828.

I never look at 'Between Decks' with the fore-shortened gun pointing at the blue sea, with the ungainly figures of sailors and marines accompanied by their wives and sweethearts, making such strong blobs of colour, but I think of a note by Mr. Finberg in one of the Sketch-Books of a few years forward prefacing some Turnerian studies which have been called 'Tone Preparations.'

'A number of these pages have been prepared with smudges of red and black water-colour, the colour being then dabbed and rubbed, with the object apparently of producing suggestions of figures, groups, etc. In some cases these suggestions have been further determined by pencil work.'

Turner was always careless with the figure. The red and gold sailors and their sweethearts are little more than suggestions of colour. The eye sees what it wants to see and he saw this vivid scene on the mess deck in the mass. There is more detail in 'Rembrandt's Daughter,' which was lent from Farnley Hall to the 'Fair Women Exhibition' of 1910. How Turner would have chuckled if he could have known that this work would be chosen to adorn a gallery devoted to types of Fair Women. He cared little about making Rembrandt's daughter fair. The idea in his mind was how he could best adapt and improve Rembrandt's 'Potiphar's Wife' and beat the Dutchman in the undertaking.

And how he would have chuckled if he could have foreseen that his 'Mortlake Summer Morning,' which he painted in 1826, would be sold in 1908 for twelve thousand six hundred guineas. The companion picture' Mortlake Terrace Summer Evening' was exhibited in 1827. It is said that Turner, thinking that a dark object was needed in the foreground, cut out a dog in black paper and pasted it on to try the effect. Another version of the story states that the black dog was affixed to the canvas by a jocular friend in Turner's absence. The dog remains to this day a dominant note. Those who saw the 'Mortlake Terrace Summer Morning' in London before it was sold wondered that Turner did not oftener confine himself to rendering simply and sympathetically what his eyes saw and what his heart felt. Burger, the great French critic, considered that these unaffected, straightforward, atmospheric riverside pictures deserved a place amongst the finest things in art. 'Ce qu'on voit des arbres et des pierres est enveloppé et dévoré par la lumière; tout semble être la lumière même et jeter aussi des rayons et des étincelles. Claude le suprême illuminateur n'a jamais rien fait d'aussi prodigieux.'

These canvases, representing the Thames-side seat of William Moffatt, used to be known as 'Mortlake Summer Morning' and 'Barnes Terrace Summer Evening.' It is a matter of regret that they are not in the Turner Gallery.

In this year the issue began, and continued until 1838, of what was to have been his _magnum opus_, the _Picturesque Views in England and Wales._ Says Mr. Rawlinson:--

'In this ill-fated work, which was from first to last commercially a failure, he proposed to depict every feature of English and Welsh scenery--cathedral cities, country towns, ancient castles, ruined abbeys, rivers, mountains, moors, lakes, and sea-coast; every hour of day--dawn, midday, sunset, twilight, moonlight; every kind of weather and atmosphere. The hundred or more drawings which he made for the work are mostly elaborately finished and of high character. Some are perhaps over-elaborated; in some the figures are carelessly and at times disagreeably drawn; but for imaginative, poetical treatment, masterly composition, and exquisite colour the best are unsurpassed. I have ventured to say elsewhere that in my opinion there are at least a dozen drawings in the _England and Wales_ series any one of which would alone have been sufficient to have placed its author in the highest rank of landscape art.'

The 'Launceston' belonging to Mr. Schwann is certainly an imposing vision of height and grandeur; all the more imposing by reason of the tiny figure on horseback in the foreground. I who know Launceston well have never seen the castle rising sky-high as Turner saw it so magnificently in his mind's eye. Neither shall I ever see 'Barnard Castle' as seen by Turner, looking up the Tees towards the castle, in the sketch he made for the _England and Wales_ water-colour, a poet's vision of opalescent colour floating in atmosphere.