As an example of Girtin’s work we reproduce The Valley of the Aire with Kirkstall Abbey ([Plate II]), from Mr. Thomas Girtin’s collection.
JOSEPH MALLORD WILLIAM TURNER
[Born in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, 23 April, 1775; worked in Life Academy, R.A. schools, 1792-1799; A.R.A., 1799, R.A. 1802; first tour on Continent, 1802; first part of “Liber Studiorum” issued, 1807; Professor of Perspective, R.A., 1807-1837; Crossing the Brook exhibited 1815; published “Southern Coast” series of engravings, 1814-1826, “Views in Sussex,” 1816-1820, Hakewill’s “Italy,” 1818-1820, “Richmondshire,” 1818-1823, “Provincial Antiquities of Scotland,” 1819-1826, “England and Wales,” 1827-1838, Rogers’s “Italy,” 1830, and “Poems,” 1834, “Rivers of France,” 1833-1835; exhibited Rain, Steam, and Speed, 1844; died Dec. 18, 1851.
Exhibited: Royal Academy, 1790-1804, ’06-’20, ’22, ’23, ’25-’47, ’49, ’50; British Institution, 1806, ’8, ’9, ’14, ’17, ’35-’41, ’46; Society of British Artists, 1833, ’34; Institution for Enc. of F.A., Edinburgh, 1824; Cooke’s Exhibitions, 1822-’24; Northern Academy of Arts, Newcastle, 1828; R. Birmingham S. of Artists, 1829, ’30, ’34, ’35, ’47; Liverpool Academy, 1831, ’45; R. Manchester Institution, 1834, ’35; Leeds Exhibition, 1839.
Works in Public Galleries: National Gallery; V. and A. Museum; British Museum; National Galleries of Ireland and Scotland; Ashmolean and Fitzwilliam Museums; Manchester Whitworth Institute; Bury Art Gallery, etc. etc.
Biographical and Critical Sources: Peter Cunningham’s Memoir, in John Burnet’s “Turner and his Works,” 1852; Alaric Watts’s Memoir, in “Liber Fluviorum,” 1853; Ruskin’s “Modern Painters” and “Preterita”; Thornbury’s “Life, etc.,” 2 vols., 1862; Hamerton’s “Life,” 1879; Monkhouse’s “Turner” (in “Great Artists Series”), 1882; C. F. Bell’s “Exhibited Works of Turner,” 1901; Sir Walter Armstrong’s “Turner,” 1902; Finberg’s “Turner’s Sketches and Drawings,” 1910; etc. etc.
Reproductions: Armstrong’s “Turner”; Wedmore’s “Turner and Ruskin”; “The Genius of Turner” (The Studio Special Number, 1903); “Hidden Treasures at the National Gallery,” 1905; “The Water-Colours of J. M. W. Turner” (The Studio Spring Number, 1909); “Turner’s Water-Colours at Farnley Hall” (The Studio Special Number, 1912); Walpole Society’s Vols. I., III., and VI.]
Turner’s first exhibited water-colour, a View of the Archbishop’s Palace, Lambeth (1790), is a poor imitation of Malton’s least inspired topographical drawings. But he learned quickly. His Inside of Tintern Abbey, (1794) shows that before he was twenty he could draw and paint Gothic architecture better than any of the older topographical artists. His pre-eminence as a topographical draughtsman was firmly established by 1797, when he had painted such works as the Lincoln Cathedral (1795), Llandaff Cathedral (1796), Westminster Abbey: St. Erasmus and Bishop Islip’s Chapel (1796), and Wolverhampton (1796).
From 1796 to 1804 Turner’s style changed, chiefly under the influence of Richard Wilson’s works, which he studied and copied diligently. These years saw the production of Norham Castle (1798), Warkworth Castle (1799), Edinburgh, from Calton Hill (1804), The Great Fall of the Reichenbach (done in 1804, but not exhibited till 1815), and the wonderful sketches in the Alps, Blair’s Hut, St. Gothard, etc. (1802). In these energetic and powerful drawings he aims at getting depth and richness of tone and colour.
From 1804 to 1815 his energies were mainly directed to the production of his great sea-paintings, The Shipwreck, Spithead, etc., his lovely English landscapes like Abingdon, Windsor, The Frosty Morning, and Crossing the Brook, and to making the designs in sepia for his “Liber Studiorum” and helping to engrave the plates. His water-colours during these years were not numerous, but they include Scarborough Town and Castle (1811), The Strid (about 1811), Bolton Abbey from the South (about 1812), all three at Farnley Hall, Mr. Morland Agnew’s Scarborough (1810), Scene on the River Tavey (1813)—called by Mr. Ruskin Pigs in Sunshine, now in the Ruskin School at Oxford, and the Malham Cove (about 1815), now in the British Museum (Salting Bequest). In these drawings the capacities of water-colour are not forced so much into rivalry with the depth and power of oil painting as in those of the 1797-1804 period.