I have alluded above to what I regard as the first oil painting in which the change that took place in Turner’s artistic aims about the year 1830 was clearly indicated. This was the ‘Calais Sands, low water,’ exhibited at the Royal Academy in May, 1830. But before painting this picture Turner had been experimenting in his new manner in a series of water-colour sketches. These sketches were made at Petworth, where Turner went to stay for a few weeks with Lord Egremont, probably in 1829, after his return from his second journey to Italy.
The two oil paintings of Petworth Park, still in the Petworth collection, as well as the brilliant unfinished sketch of ‘Petworth Park’ in the National Gallery (No. 559), were probably painted in the house during this visit; at any rate, the sketches in water-colour upon which these canvases were based were made at this time. But when Turner was not busy at his easel or sketching in the park and neighbourhood, he seems to have felt the time hang heavily on his hands, so, to save himself from the ennui of small-talk and idleness, he began making colour sketches, first of the various rooms, then of the furniture and bric-à-brac, and finally of the people staying in the house. These sketches, which number about a hundred, indicate clearly a distinct change in Turner’s outlook upon nature. Up to this time he had invariably employed form as the basis of his work. In these studies we see him turning his attention directly to colour as the chief element
PLATE LXXV
HONFLEUR
BODY COLOUR ON BLUE. ABOUT 1830
PLATE LXXVI