Mr. Turner

“ Mr. Turner, you fill me with guilty apprehensions. It is a great gift of yours. May I ask if you are a representative of the law? Or are you the emissary of some newspaper? Or are you merely taking up detection as a hobby?"
Turner flushed. He felt certain that he was being bluffed, but Uncle Joseph would give him no opening.
"I represent the 'Searchlight,'" he said.
"In that case," said Uncle Joseph cheerfully, "I shall be delighted to offer you a lift back to the office. I am going to call on Mr. Dill at twelve o'clock. Come downstairs, and let us see if we can get a cab anywhere." ”

“ Scanning the plate with his eagle eye, Turner asked ‘Who did this plate, my boy?’ ‘Mr. Cooke, sir,’ answered Saddler, to which Turner replied, ‘Go and tell your master he is bringing you on very nicely, especially in lying.’ Later on he engraved the vessels in the plate of Turner's ‘Fighting Téméraire,’ the sky of which was the joint production of R. Dickens and J. T. Willmore, A.R.A., and he used to say that Turner took a keener interest in the engraving of this than of any others of his works. ”

“ When they had gone some way, the carriage stopped, and a young man got in, who said that he had been sent to break to her the news that her father's illness was a fiction; that they did not wish to spread the truth by letting the governess know, but that the fact was that Mr. Turner had got into some terrible money difficulties and was completely ruined, and he begged that his daughter would proceed at once to meet him in Scotland, whither he was obliged to go to evade his creditors. During the journey the young man who was sent to chaperon Miss Turner made himself most agreeable. ”

“ Turner, with a song upon his lips and the firm conviction in his breast that in a few days he would be on his way to Ohio with the money that was to make ma and the girls comfortable.
All day long he worked assiduously, never pausing to note the looks of contempt and ridicule that were cast upon him by the passing miners who were working up the gulch with pick, shovel and pan.
That night Mr. Turner’s cellar was half done, and Julius was as hopeful as ever, confidently remarking to Mr. Purdy that he would surely find the gold tomorrow, as he was getting the space narrowed down now. ”

“ I do not think that Turner ever thought seriously about matrimony. His art was his mistress, and to his art to his dying day he was loyal, to the sacrifice of everything else. And he was loyal in his way—or shall I say faithful in his way—to Hannah Danby, who entered his service in 1800 or 1801, a girl of sixteen; who was housekeeper in Queen Anne Street through his long life; and who, in the end, when he had done all his great work, found him dying in hiding as Mr. Booth, 'husband' of Mrs. Booth, in the little house at Chelsea overlooking the river. ”

“ Turner is successful, and his sketches of men, women, and creeds are, generally speaking, humorous, shrewd, and suggestive.”
Observer.—“A very well told story; the characters are drawn with much freshness and clearness of delineation.... Bright and lively without being flippant. Mr. Turner’s story is decidedly entertaining and well written, and will probably be popular.”
Outlook.—“A purposeful story altogether out of the common ruck. It is both daring and convincing. The portrait of Frank Lester is surely as coolly relentless a thing as has been done for a long time.... ”

“ But could anything be lovelier than the blue sea rippling on the yellow sand, the subtle hills and the fairy building, a kind of Claude 'Enchanted Castle' that has passed into a golden dream.
Turner, as I have said before, has his admirers and detractors, and those who adore part of his achievement and are critical of the rest; few, if any, admire him all in all. Let me here quote two authorities on 'The Bay of Baiæ'—Mr. ”

“ Sir,—As it appears from the public Prints that the late eminent artist, J. M. W. Turner, never sat for his Portrait;—and the only likenesses of him were taken by stealth, I send you a rude sketch which I took of him in the same way, about the year 1805 or 6. He was then on a visit at Mr. Fawkes's, of Farnley, where a number of grouse shooters had assembled,—and Turner had adopted the garb of a sportsman. ”

“ Mr. Thomas Turner was brought before the magistrate on a peace warrant, issued at the suit of his wife, Mrs. Eleanor Turner. There was a world of arguments pro. and con.; but we must content ourselves with a simple narrative of the principal facts.
Mr. and Mrs. Turner were married in September last, at which time he was not much more than seventy-three years old; and she was only fifty-six, the very day they went to church; consequently their experience was not so great as it might have been, had they been older. ”

“ We need not on the present occasion trouble to examine too curiously the reasons which induced Mr.{21} Ruskin to take such an entirely perverse view of the kind of subjects an English landscape painter ought to choose. It is sufficient to point out that an artist can only paint with his full power those scenes which he knows and loves intimately. Turner was born in London, and the Thames with its shipping about London Bridge stirred Turner’s imagination with memories of his boyhood, his early dreams and aspirations, in a way that the Rhone, or the Rhine, or the Danube could never stir it. ”

“ Meg turned over restfully; how good it was to feel there would be a sister near always instead of the strange hands and face of a nurse! What a relief, now the strain was over, to be able to give up and be taken care of instead of taking care!
In the morning, when she woke, her first question again, after hearing Essie was improving fast, was what about the children?
Mrs. Hassal had come, Nell said; Mr. Gillet had brought her, and they were both at the cottage. Mr. Gillet was much distressed to hear she was ill, and had sent kindest regards and hopes for a speedy recovery. ”

“ Mr. W. G. Rawlinson's volume is the authority on the Liber, wherein Turner sought to 'display in engraved form the whole range of his powers, and to rival on their own ground his predecessors —Claude, Poussin, Rembrandt, Backhuysen, Cuyp, Van de Velde, Wilson, Gainsborough, as well as the painters of his day.' Turner made a hundred or more sepia drawings for the work, eighty-four of which are in the Turner Collection at Millbank. ”

“ In the Annals of the Fine Arts, of the year 1820, appeared the following criticism of Turner's works in the exhibition held at Mr. Fawkes's house in Grosvenor Place, which must have included some of the Italian drawings:—
'Turner appears here in his original splendour and to his greatest advantage. Those who only know the artist of late and from his academical works will hardly believe the grandeur, simplicity and beauty that pervade his best works in this collection.... ”

“ The "Interior at Petworth" is not in Mr. Bell's catalogue. Turner, as we now know, reserved this work, with so many others, as a private confession of faith. ... For him the shape no longer exists; he sees only light and colour, and even those transform themselves in a peculiar way. He does not see a fragment of nature through the medium of his temperament; but gives us rather, on the contrary, his own temperament seen through a fragment of nature. Nature is wholly subordinated to his impetuous need for self-expression.... ”

“ Then Aldith rose to go. "Mind you're in time for the boat to-morrow," she said, as they reached the gate; "and, Marguerite, be sure you make yourself look very nice—wear your cornflower dress, and see if Mrs. Woolcot will lend you a pair of her gloves, your grey ones are just a little shabby, aren't they, dear?"
"H'm," said Meg, colouring.
"And Mr. James Graham always comes back on that boat, and the two Courtney boys—Andrew Courtney told Beatrice he thought you seemed a nice little thing; he often notices you, he says, because you blush so." ”

“ In 1795, 'W. Turner, Hand Court, 26 Maiden Lane, Covent Garden,' exhibited eight drawings.
It will be seen from the above extracts from the Inventory how early Turner became a traveller. He was a traveller almost to the end of his life, and, whatever else he forgot, he never left his sketch-book at home. 'No day without a note of Nature' might almost have been his motto. His sketch-books are the guides to his travels, and when I turn the pages and follow the wanderings of this unresting man of genius, there rises before me, as a companion to the sketch-books, the map that Mr. ”

“ Esther darted back to the buggy, took the General from Pip, and, springing up the steps again, placed him in her mother's arms.
"Isn't he a fat 'un!" Bunty said, sharing in her pride; "just you look at his legs."
The old lady sat down for one minute in the wettest chair she could find, and cuddled him close up to her.
But he doubled his little cold fists, fought himself free, and yelled for Esther.
Mr. Hassal had emptied the buggies by now, and came up the steps himself. ”

“ Pip fled away down the road that led to the doctor's.
Mr. Gillet gave a direction or two, then he looked at Meg.
"Everything depends on you; you must not even think of breaking down," he said. "Don't move her, watch all the time." ”

“ The clergyman also agreed that the plan seemed good. "That is," he added, with his kindly smile, "if the little girls themselves are willing to allow the question to be decided in this way. I think, since they have worked so hard, they should be consulted."
"Oh, certainly," said the distinguished visitor; "ask them, by all means."
The principal's eyes went to the near front seat.
"Chrissie," she said, "Mr. Williams wishes to know if you are willing to let this be the test for the prize?"
Away in the back seat Una breathed hard. ”

“ At all events, the degree of his secretiveness is extraordinary. “I knew him,” says an old architect, “when a boy, and have often paid him a guinea for putting backgrounds to my architectural drawings, calling upon him for this purpose at his father’s shop in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden. He never would suffer me to see him draw, but concealed, as I understood, all that he did in his bedroom.” When in this bedroom one morning, the door suddenly opened, and Mr. Britton entered. [10] In an instant Turner covered up his drawings and ran to bar the crafty intruder’s progress. ”

“ In writing on Turner one must necessarily make levies on the works of other authors. I give hearty acknowledgment to Mr. A. J. Finberg's Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest (printed for His Majesty's Stationery Office) , which he himself has used with skill and accomplishment in his Turner's Sketches and Drawings (Methuen & Co.) . Among the other books consulted and quoted from are Turner, by Sir Walter Armstrong (Agnew & Sons) ; Turner, by W. L. Wyllie, A.R.A. (G. Bell & Sons) ; The Turner Drawings, by E. T. Cook (Pall Mall Press) ”

“ Hassal, whom they all called "little grandma," much to her pleasure, and Esther with the boy.
"You must go and ask Mr. Gillet," the old lady said; "he keeps the keys of the stores. See, over in that cottage near the tank, and speak nicely, children, please."
"Such a gentleman," she said in a low tone to Esther, "so clever, so polished, if only he did not drink so."
Meg and Judy went, with Baby hurrying after them as fast as her short legs would allow.
"Come in," a voice said when they knocked. Meg hesitated nervously, and a man opened the door. ”

“ An admirer who tried to purchase the 'Téméraire,' had a long interview with Turner in Queen Anne Street, but the painter could not be induced to put a price upon the picture, although he offered to take a commission of the same size at two hundred guineas. There is the usual Varnishing Day story told about the 'Téméraire.' Geddes, who had a portrait hung above, realising that his picture was killed by the dazzle of Turner's sunset, prepared to introduce a showy carpet into the floor of his portrait. He had laid it in with a flat, bright tint of vermilion when Turner appeared. 'Oh, ho! Mr. ”

“ This influence has been indirect, through the works of his great contemporary Turner, and those of such followers as Cotman, Francia, Bonington, and De Wint, but it has not been less true on that account. ‘Had Tom Girtin lived, I should have starved,’ said Turner, and Mr. Ruskin has written of his work: ‘He is often as impressive to me as Nature herself; nor do I doubt that Turner owed more to his teaching and companionship than to his own genius in the first years of his life.’ Most of Girtin's finest drawings are in private hands, but by the bequests of Mr. ”

“ Finberg, a critic who has devoted years of his life to Turner, and Mr. Wyllie, a painter who has written an admirable book on the [Pg 126] master. The reader can decide which form of criticism or commentary he prefers: the cold objectivity of the critic or the glowing subjectivity of the painter. Here is Mr. Finberg on 'The Bay of Baiæ,' extracted from the admirable Extra Number of The Studio on the 'Water Colours of Turner':—
'It is conceded on all hands that Turner's artistic work went all to pieces as a result of his Italian experiences. ”

“ Mayall tells us that Turner when he visited him bore the marks of age; but in the profile drawing of this period, ascribed to Linnell, with the straggling hair, the powerful nose, and the enormous stock about his neck, the face is keen, and the artist has quite caught the gleam of the grey eye. This drawing is not by Linnell, as has been hitherto supposed, but by Landseer and Count d'Orsay in conjunction. Mr. ”