EDITED BY GEOFFREY HOLME
“THE STUDIO,” Lᵀᴰ., LONDON PARIS, NEW YORK
CONTENTS
| ARTICLES BY A. J. FINBERG | |
| PAGE | |
| Introduction | [1] |
| The Turners | [4] |
| Turner’s Predecessors | [22] |
| Turner’s Contemporaries | [26] |
| Descriptive Catalogue of the Exhibition of Selected Water-Colour Drawings by Artists of the Early English School held at Messrs. Thomas Agnew & Sons’ Galleries, London, March-April 1919 | [33] |
| ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOURS | |
|---|---|
| After J. S. Cotman | PLATE |
| Rouen (3) | [xxxv] |
| After J. R. Cozens | |
| A Swiss Valley (43) | [xxvii] |
| Villa Negroni, Rome (42) | [xxix] |
| After J. M. W. Turner, R.A. | |
| Castle of Chillon (18) | [vii] |
| Saumur (23) | [x] |
| Richmond Bridge—Play (20) | [xi] |
| Worcester (25) | [xii] |
| The Longships Lighthouse, Land’s End (27) | [xiii] |
| Lake Nemi (26) | [xv] |
| The Rigi at Sunrise—Lake of Lucerne (“The Blue Rigi”) (28) | [xvii] |
| Lake of Lucerne: Brunnen in the Distance (130) | [xx] |
| Mouth of the Grand Canal (127) | [xxiii] |
| ILLUSTRATIONS IN MONOTONE | |
| After T. Collier | |
| Beeston Castle (82) | [xliv] |
| After J. S. Cotman | |
| Bridge over River near a Town (78) | [xxxiii] |
| Gormire Lake, Yorkshire (74) | [xxxiv] |
| After J. S. Cotman | |
| A Lake Scene (1) | [xxxvi] |
| Church in Normandy (9) | [xxxvii] |
| After J. R. Cozens | |
| In the Farnesina Gardens, Rome (41) | [xxviii] |
| Lake Nemi (45) | [xxx] |
| After Edward Dayes | |
| Norwich Cathedral (144) | [xxvi] |
| After Copley Fielding | |
| The Pilot Boat (70) | [xlii] |
| After Thomas Girtin | |
| Kenilworth (146) | [xxxi] |
| Lincoln (7) | [xxxii] |
| After Samuel Prout | |
| Folkestone (86) | [xxxix] |
| After David Roberts, R.A. | |
| Granada (88) | [xliii] |
| After G. Robson | |
| Ben Venue, from Lanrick (66) | [xli] |
| After Paul Sandby, R.A. | |
| The Swan Inn, Edmonton (64) | [xxv] |
| After J. M. W. Turner, R.A. | |
| Old Abbey, Evesham (139) | [i] |
| Malmesbury Abbey (53) | [ii] |
| Water Mill (147) | [iii] |
| A Mountain Stream (152) | [iv] |
| Cassiobury: The House seen across the Park (16) | [v] |
| Lake of Thun (34) | [vi] |
| Patterdale Old Church (21) | [viii] |
| Rolandswerth Nunnery and Drachenfels (35) | [ix] |
| Valley of the Washburne, near Farnley (153) | [xiv] |
| Florence, from near San Miniato (29) | [xvi] |
| Steeton Manor, near Farnley (136) | [xviii] |
| Wilderness of Sinai (132) | [xix] |
| Saltash (30) | [xxi] |
| Prudhoe Castle (22) | [xxii] |
| A Gorge (115) | [xxiv] |
| After William Turner of Oxford | |
| Kingley Vale, with Chichester Cathedral in the Distance (77) | [xl] |
| After John Varley | |
| Leyton, Essex (1830) (122) | [xxxviii] |
THE EDITOR DESIRES TO ACKNOW-
LEDGE THE VALUABLE ASSISTANCE
RENDERED HIM IN THE PREPARA-
TION OF THIS VOLUME BY MESSRS.
THOMAS AGNEW & SONS; AND TO
THANK MR. C. MORLAND AGNEW, MR.
W. J. H. JONES, AND MR. R. W. LLOYD
FOR KINDLY ALLOWING THEIR
DRAWINGS TO BE REPRODUCED
INTRODUCTION
Turner was one of the greatest artists this country has produced, and much of his best work—and nearly all the work by which he has endeared himself to his fellow-countrymen, was done in water-colour; yet water-colour painting, though it has played almost as important a part as oil painting in the history of British art, is not yet recognized by our authorities as an independent branch of art. That Turner the water-colour painter is represented at all in our National Gallery is purely an accident. The bulk of his water-colours are in private collections, and it is only on rare occasions that the public can get an opportunity of seeing them.
It is for these reasons that Messrs. Thomas Agnew and Sons’ annual exhibitions of English water-colours, though the outcome of the energy and enterprise of a private firm, have become artistic events of great public importance. The chief feature of these exhibitions has always been a generous supply of Turner’s finished water-colours. They have, therefore, become a regular source of instruction and pleasure to that section of the public which really cares for British art. They open the doors, at any rate for a time, to the chief private collections of Turner’s water-colours; they give students of his work valuable opportunities of enlarging their experience and increasing their knowledge; and they do much to spread and stimulate an adequate appreciation of the achievements not only of Turner but of the other great water-colour painters of this country.
The exhibition which was opened in March of this year (1919) was neither superior nor inferior to those which had gone before, but it attracted a quite unusual amount of interest and attention. This was due, I imagine, at least in part to circumstances connected with the war—to the closing of the public galleries and museums, and to the almost incredible folly of the Government in not reopening them immediately the armistice was signed. After the long-drawn-out agony of the war there was a part of the public which was disposed to turn naturally to the comfort and refreshment which art can give. But though the armistice was signed in November last year, Messrs. Agnew’s exhibition was the first opportunity offered to the public of seeing, under favourable conditions, a fine selection of some of the most beautiful work of our great artists of the past. The public was evidently grateful for such an opportunity and took full advantage of it. This was only another instance of our national good luck in finding that private enterprise and initiative so often step in and perform work of public importance which our Government is too stupid or too supine to perform.