THE TRAFALGAR FLEET. 267 foreground are three boats, not by any means out of danger, and crowded with frightened, huddled groups of men and women. Some of the passengers are dropping from the bowsprit into the boat; the boat, in danger, is partly hidden by a wave. The broken rudder floats by on the dark and dirty water, which is opaque and cordy, and of a uniform grey, as if seen from a distance through rain and mist. The figures are admirably composed, and the objection of nobody looking wet is of no great weight, since coarse woollen sea-cloths have not a refractive surface, wet or dry. No marine painter ever painted with so sailor-like a mind as Turner. When Admiral Bowles saw the "Wreck of the Minotaur" at the British Institution, he said, "No ship or boat could live in such a sea." This was just the sea Turner intended to paint. Turner went down to Portsmouth in 1805, to see the Trafalgar fleet return. He was always half a sailor in heart, and his eye must have expanded at the noble sight that for the time erased all memories of petty cares and drove all selfish fears from men's hearts. In 1806* Turner returned to the classics, and exhibited his "Goddess of Discord showing the Apple of Discord in the Garden of the Hesperides." Mr. Wornum, an excellent authority on technicalities, calls this "the best classical picture of the English school." To me it seems full of knowledge and art, but very purposeless and uninteresting, besides being very *This year the British Institution opened in the Boydell Gallery, Pall Mall, an exhibition-room built on the site of Dodsley's house. The sculpture over the door is by Banks. 268 THE GOLDEN APPLE. dark; the figures, too, are rather sketchy, and hardly bear the prominence that is given them. The story is hardly worth remembering how the three daughters of Hesperus dwelt in a garden in North Africa, keeping charge of the tree of golden apples (oranges?), the gift of Earth and Juno. On her wedding-day, aided by the dragon Ladon, Discord, not being invited to the marriage of Thetis, obtained one of these apples, in order to spread war among the gods. The decision of Paris and the destruction of Troy were the results of this visit to the somewhat brown and dingy garden. The dragon lying along the summit of the rock Mr. Ruskin thinks a wonderful creation of the imagination. To me it seems that his jaws are thin, brittle, and powerless-not nearly so terrible as those of the alligator. It is said that Turner drew this monster from a stuffed dragon constructed for a London Christmas pantomime. In 1806 Turner painted the "Falls of Schaffhausen," still grey in colour, with a rainbow half formed hanging over the tremendous rushing cataract that the rocks sever in two. In the foreground Turner has put a backing waggon with kicking horses, some bales and boxes, and some cattle being driven to the ferry-boat. This picture was bought by the father of the present Lord de Tabley, one of Turner's earliest friends. The present owner of the title, writing to me, says: "I remember Turner speaking to me himself highly of this picture." He probably visited Tabley Park, Cheshire, in 1808, and in 1810 Lowther Castle. CHAPTER XV. 66 It was and is well known to men living in the early and middle portion of Turner's professional career, that he did not often sell his oil-pictures; they were not sought after or appreciated by the aristocracy or fashionable picture-buyers, with few exceptions, such as Lord Egremont of Petworth, Lord Yarborough, Sir John Leicester, and Lord Ellesmere; the cause of which may be traced and principally attributed to the influence and absorbing preference given by Sir George Beaumont (an amateur artist) to the works or pictures of Claude. To Sir George the fashionable patrons of art looked as an oracle of taste; to such an extent was this preference of Claude carried, that upon Sir George Beaumont becoming the possessor of the little picture by Claude now in the National Gallery (called the "Annunciation"), he considered it such a gem, and so precious a picture, that he could not nor did not think it safe out of his sight; so it is said, when he drove out in his carriage, he always took it with him. Whether there was anything personal or not in this advocacy of Claude to the exclusion of Turner, I know not; but it is certain and well known that Turner was well acquainted with it, and deeply felt the injustice of Sir George Beaumont's prejudices, as well as the influence he had in picture society to direct all taste and to concentrate it on Claude; the painful knowledge of these facts gave rise, no doubt, to Turner's bequeathing two of his best pictures to the nation, on condition that they were placed side by side with two of Claude's best pictures, in order that posterity might do him that justice that either ignorance or something worse denied him while living; in the same spirit, and in defence of himself as an artist, did Turner commence his wonderful, beautiful, and highly estimated work of the "Liber Studiorum,” as compared with the "Liber Veritatis" of Claude. The first "Liber Studiorum" sketch was made by Turner at the house of his old friend Mr. Wells, the drawing-master at Addiscombe. Turner had not much business at the time, and thought that he could profitably employ his time by rivalling Claude. He had intended to publish one hundred numbers; but no more than seventy ever appeared, for during the time that this seventy took to publish, Turner had become more successful, and he did not care then to spend his time in speculation. For the earlier numbers he employed Mr. Lewis, the engraver, to whom he first paid five guineas a mezzotint, and then eight. This was totally inadequate for the time and trouble spent on them, and the result of this hard bargain was a quarrel that lasted fifteen years. But eventually Turner had to pay Mr. CLAUDE'S "LIBER." 271 Charles Turner from eight to ten guineas, and I believe the price to other engravers rose at last as high as twelve guineas. Yet even Turner could never have thought that a copy of the "Liber" would one day sell for 3000l., or the engraver believe that proofs which he had actually used to light the fire would sell for eight or ten guineas, or that he would be offered twenty-five guineas for any residue he could find of them. There can be no doubt that the "Liber Studiorum" was begun by Turner in retaliating rivalry of Claude's "Liber Veritatis," published by the Duke of Richmond after his return from Italy. Turner's" Liber" undoubtedly utterly weighs down the book of Claude; but then we must not forget that the comparison of the two is an unjust one. Claude's was not a show-book, and never intended for publication; it is merely a volume of sketches of sold pictures, kept as remembrances. Turner's was a book, the produce of some years, elaborated with extreme care, engraved for the most part with his own hands, and watched in all its processes with the most jealous and sagacious care. It was intended to show his command of the whole compass of landscape art, and the boundless and matchless richness of his stores both of fact and invention. They showed his fearlessness of plagiarism, and were so many bold challenges to all his contemporaries. The drawings for the "Liber" mezzotints were of the same size as the plates, and were carefully finished in sepia. The proofs were sometimes also touched all over with the brush in sepia, |