A survey of the ground we have covered—The training of Turner’s sympathies by the poets—The limits of artistic beauty—and of a merely ‘musical’ education—Turner unlike Wordsworth—the predominantly sensuous bent of his genius—The parting of the ways—The dependence of art upon society—Turner ‘the fashion’—The influence of the Academy—The Italian visit in 1819—Turner’s Italian sketches—Their beauty and uselessness—The Naturalistic fallacy—Turner’s work for the engravers—The Southern Coast series—‘Watchet’ and ‘Boscastle’—Whitaker’s History of Richmondshire—‘Hornby Castle’ and ‘Heysham’—Scott’s Provincial Antiquities—‘Edinburgh, from the Calton Hill’—‘Rochester,’ in the Rivers of England series—England and Wales—‘Bolton Abbey’ and ‘Colchester’—‘Stamford’—‘Tynemouth.’
WE have now followed the development of Turner’s mind from boyhood to youth and well into manhood. We have watched the architectural and topographical draughtsman develop into an artist under the guidance of his admiration for Wilson. Then the mind of the painter of the sublime, of the picturesque in general, struck its unseen roots deeper into the interests and sympathies of the people amongst whom he lived. In the hour of national danger his heart beat high with courage and determination. His pictures of the sea are like war songs; they strike the Dorian note, they represent the tone of mind of a brave man who faces wounds and death and all contingencies with unflinching endurance. Then the mind of the laureate of a nation in arms takes a still wider sweep. It embraces humanity and animate and inanimate nature in one glance, and finds the soul of good in all things. The Dorian harmonies give place to the Phrygian.
In all this Turner’s attitude seems entirely passive or receptive.
PLATE XLIV
KIRKBY LONSDALE BRIDGE
PENCIL. ABOUT 1816
