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.