Among the many peculiarities which distinguished the late J. M. W.
Turner from other landscape painters, not the least notable, in my
apprehension, were his earnest desire to arrange his works in connected
groups, and his evident intention, with respect to each drawing, that it
should be considered as expressing part of a continuous system of
thought. The practical result of this feeling was that he commenced many
series of drawings,--and, if any accident interfered with the
continuation of the work, hastily concluded them,--under titles
representing rather the relation which the executed designs bore to the
materials accumulated in his own mind, than the position which they
could justifiably claim when contemplated by others. The _River Scenery_
was closed without a single drawing of a rapidly running stream; and the
prints of his annual tours were assembled, under the title of the
_Rivers of France_, without including a single illustration either of
the Rhone or the Garonne.
The title under which the following plates are now presented to the
public, is retained merely out of respect to this habit of Turner's.
Under that title he commenced the publication, and executed the vignette
for its title-page, intending doubtless to make it worthy of taking rank
with, if not far above, the consistent and extensive series of the
_Southern Coast_, executed in his earlier years. But procrastination and
accident equally interfered with his purpose. The excellent engraver Mr.
Lupton, in co-operation with whom the work was undertaken, was
unfortunately also a man of genius, and seems to have been just as
capricious as Turner himself in the application of his powers to the
matter in hand. Had one of the parties in the arrangement been a mere
plodding man of business, the work would have proceeded; but between the
two men of talent it came very naturally to a stand. They petted each
other by reciprocal indulgence of delay; and at Turner's death, the
series, so magnificently announced under the title of the _Harbors of
England_, consisted only of twelve plates, all the less worthy of their
high-sounding title in that, while they included illustrations of some
of the least important of the watering-places, they did not include any
illustration whatever of such harbors of England as Liverpool, Shields,
Yarmouth, or Bristol. Such as they were, however, I was requested to
undertake their illustration. As the offer was made at a moment when
much nonsense, in various forms, was being written about Turner and his
works; and among the twelve plates there were four[H] which I considered
among the very finest that had been executed from his marine subjects, I
accepted the trust; partly to prevent the really valuable series of
engravings from being treated with injustice, and partly because there
were several features in them by which I could render more intelligible
some remarks I wished to make on Turner's marine painting in general.
[H] Portsmouth, Sheerness, Scarborough, and Whitby.
These remarks, therefore, I have thrown together, in a connected form;
less with a view to the illustration of these particular plates, than of
the general system of ship-painting which was characteristic of the
great artist. I have afterwards separately noted the points which seemed
to me most deserving of attention in the plates themselves.
Of archæological information the reader will find none. The designs
themselves are, in most instances, little more than spirited sea-pieces,
with such indistinct suggestion of local features in the distance as may
justify the name given to the subject; but even when, as in the case of
the Dover and Portsmouth, there is something approaching topographical
detail, I have not considered it necessary to lead the reader into
inquiries which certainly Turner himself never thought of; nor do I
suppose it would materially add to the interest of these cloud distances
or rolling seas, if I had the time--which I have not--to collect the
most complete information respecting the raising of Prospect Rows, and
the establishment of circulating libraries.
DENMARK HILL.
[1856.]