in thirty years." And it is remarkable, that within a few months of the date thus specified, Turner should have died, almost literally fulfilling, as some of his admirers may think, Constable's prophecy. Turner died December 19, 1851. TURNER'S EARLY VIEWS OF LAMBETH PALACE. This water-colour drawing, the second exhibited by Turner at the Royal Academy, (see page 311) was, in 1853, in the possession of a lady residing in Bristol, to whose father the drawing was given by the artist after the Exhibition season, and it had never been in other hands. It seems that Turner, when young, was a frequent visitor at the above gentleman's house; and on one occasion he lent Turner a horse, to go on a sketching tour through South Wales. The same lady had also a small portrait of Turner, done by himself, when visiting her family about the year 1791 or 1792. She had likewise three or four other early drawings by Turner, among which was a view of Stoke Bishop, near Bristol, the seat of Sir Henry Lippincott, Bart., which the artist made as a companion to the Lambeth Palace view. Mr. Walter, the Marine Painter, of Bristol, observes: "As early indications of so great an artist, these drawings are very curious and interesting; but no person that knows anything of the state of watercolour painting at that period, and previous to the era when Turner, Girtin, and others, began to shine out in the new and glorious style, that has since brought water-colour works to their present style of splendour, excellence and value,-will look for anything approaching the perfection of our days." CHANGES OF RESIDENCE. As Turner rose in fame, he thought it advisable to remove from " over his father's shop," and shifted to apartments of his own in Hand-court. Immediately after his election as an Associate of the Academy, he removed to the house No. 75, Norton-street, Portland-road, where he stayed three years. Thence he removed to No. 64, Harley-street, then a more fashionable and expensive locality than now. Nor was this all the change. In former times, he had been content to exhibit as "W. Turner;" but with his new affix of letters (A. R. A.) after his name, he had recourse to other initials before his name. From and after his elevation into the Academy, he is "J. M. W. Turner," in Court Guides, and Exhibition Catalogues. In 1808, when Turner was living in Harley-street, he had country quarters in the Upper Mall at Hammersmith. Four years later, he removed from Harley-street to No. 47, Queen Ann-street West; and 1814, he left the Mall at Hammersmith for what he at first called "Solus Lodge, Twickenham,” but soon dropped for Sandycombe Lodge, a kind of cit's countrybox, with pleasant peeps over the Thames. When at Hammersmith, he had Loutherbourg for his neighbour. He is said to have left Twickenham about 1828. SECRET OF HIS ADDRESS. Turner had some odd motives for concealing his new abode, whenever he changed it; and his ingenuity in baffling the curiosity of his friends was marvellous—almost equal to that of Dr. Paul Heffernan. Offers were made to walk home with him from the Athenæum Club, for a chit-chat about Academy matters. No: he had got an engagement, and must keep it. Some of the younger sort attempted to follow him, but he managed to steal away from them, to tire them out, or pop into cheap omnibuses, or round dark corners. If he sus pected that he was followed, he would set off for a tavern haunt; but as soon as this got to be known, he left it, and the landlord lost his customer. Once his hiding-place was nearly discovered. Turner had dined with some friends at Greenwich, had drunk freely, and, on reaching town, was thought to be not sufficiently collected to call a cab. The party, as had been plotted, dropped off, and there was left with Turner only one friend, who placed him in a cab: thinking to catch the bemused painter unawares, he shut the cabdoor, and said, "Where shall he drive to?" Turner was not, however, to be caught, and collectedly replied, "Along Piccadilly, and I will tell him where."-Turner and his Works. TURNER AND THE CRITIC. One of the critics termed his Snow-storm-Steam-boat off a Harbour's mouth, making Signals, "a mass of soapsuds and whitewash;" to which Turner adroitly replied, "I wish they had been in it." QUID PRO QUO. Once, at a dinner, where several artists, amateurs, and literary men were convened, a poet, by way of being facetious, proposed as a toast the health of the painters and glaziers of Great Britain. The toast was drunk, and Turner, after returning thanks for it, proposed the health of the British paper-stainers. PICTURES FROM THOMSON AND MILTON. In Turner's early life, his favourite poet was Thomson, and he has taken from his Seasons four effects in four of his pictures, while he was yet in the infancy of his reputation. Round Dunstamborough Castle, on the coast of Northumberland, he has shown an effect of sunrise after a squally night, such as he imagined was in the poet's eye, when On Norham Castle, on the Tweed, he threw an effect of a summer's morning : But yonder comes the powerful King of Day, On one occasion he had recourse to Milton, summoning to his canvas: Ye Mists and Exhalations! that now rise And what his genius could embody in the way of exhalation he has given us as an effect of morning among the Coniston Falls, in Cumberland. He was thus early alive to the varieties of Nature, and copied her, when he chose, with a master's hand.-P. Cunningham; Turner and his Works. TURNER'S ACCURACY. Nearly thirty years ago, an antiquarian writer bore testimony to the accuracy of architecture of the backgrounds of Turner's pictures, at the same time that he acknowledged the beauty of the great Painter's colour: the former point having been often disputed. This testimony occurs in the opening of a paper on Historical Propriety in Painting, in Brayley's Graphic Illustrator, 1834; and is as follows: "The greatest master of colour amongst the painters of the present day is at the same time the most remarkable for propriety in his architectural backgrounds: these frequently exhibit designs that may be studied with advantage by the architect and in expressing my admiration of Turner, I wish to avoid the appearance of advocating that servile imitation which an antiquary is supposed to require." The writer who has taken the trouble to disinter the above, and send it to Notes and Queries, 2nd Series, No. 36, adds: "The king of colourists here gets his due, and nothing more; he did not often get that twenty years ago. It is different now." TURNER'S ORIGINALITY. In what does this consist? Let us hear John Burnet in reply. "Since the revival of painting, handed down to us by a succession of eminent artists, it would be strange if there could be anything original in treatment, or, indeed, of any other principle; but in Turner's works we find the practice of former painters given under the greatest variety of circumstances, and he has always the skill of concealing the means by which his works are produced, rendering what has been taken from his predecessors his own. The varieties in Nature are endless, but those of art are merely like the letters of the alphabet, altered by transposition; nevertheless, to read a picture is as difficult as to read a book printed in an untaught language this it is that makes the ignorant scout the idea of rules in art, or the imbecile attempt to paint without them; those only can produce something original in painting, who have been taught the orthography and grammar of the art. Reynolds, Gainsborough, Richard Wilson, and others, were not understood in their own time, though now so highly valued; the works of Turner must pass through the same ordeal. The engravings from his finest pictures have been unproductive, though executed by some of the best artists, and at present only called into notice since his death. His paintings, being a gift to the nation, will have an advantage over others of the English school, and may become sooner understood."-Turner and his Works. TURNER'S COMPOSITION. The mode Turner took to improve his talent for this branch of the art seems to have been to select a picture of Vandervelde's, such as the Earl of Ellesmere's, or one of Claude's, like Lord Egremont's, and paint companions to them of the same character; this was a severe trial, but having a point to start from, and examining these works, he more easily imitated their beauties, and eschewed their defects. Judging of the composition of Turner from his earliest drawings, we are led to believe it was of slow growth, nor does he seem to have fixed the principles in his mind which afterwards shone through all his works; there are few in the possession of all artists, but when once known and felt, are capable of endless changes. UNDERSTANDING TURNER. Burnet has well said that "Art is highly conventional; and the more ideal and poetical it is rendered, the more difficult it becomes for the public to comprehend it. This is one cause why the works of Turner convey a greater pleasure to the artist than the casual observer; and the higher the gratification becomes, the more they are studied and contemplated. The tutored eye sees fresh beauties spring up into notice, strictly in accordance with the effects in nature, but unperceived by him until rendered visible in Turner's works. This is the great charm of his pictures-they gain upon you; some forms are clear, others are only suggestive of what the imagination embodies. * * * * * "What we find in the historical works of Correggio, Titian, and Paul Veronese, we find adopted in the landscapes of Turner. The delicacy of his tints, and the dreamy character and indistinctness of many of the forms, add to the poetical look of the pictures. His colours appear also of a very refined quality, and never convey a vulgar or common look. This arises not only from the situation he places them in, but in mixing several tints together; and is very observable when one of his pictures is placed in contact with one by another artist. The effect is very evident in the lighter pictures of Rubens, and in those of Teniers. The general public do not yet appreciate the beauty of his compositions. People want something more definite and topographical in the character; in fact, more easy to be comprehended." MR. RUSKIN'S CRITICISM ON TURNER'S WORKS. To the ignorance and incompetence of the Art-critics of a few years since in appreciating the genius of Turner, we owe |