A FIRST-RATER TAKING IN STORES.
SIGNED AND DATED “J. M. W. TURNER, 1818.” SIZE 11¼” × 15½".
This is the drawing Turner is said to have begun and finished one morning at Farnley, between breakfast and lunch. There had been some talk at breakfast between Mr. Fawkes and Turner about the relative sizes of small sailing-craft and men-of-war. After breakfast, Turner said to young Hawksworth Fawkes that he would make a drawing to illustrate what they had been talking about. The boy sat beside him for three hours while the drawing was being made, the artist, says Thornbury, “tearing up the sea with the eagle-claw of his thumbnail, and working like a madman; yet the detail is full and delicate, betraying no sign of hurry.” This story has been frequently repeated, but it is hard, with the exquisitely finished and elaborate drawing in front of one, to accept it without considerable reservation.
THE GREAT FALL OF THE REICHENBACH; IN THE VALLEY OF HASLE, SWITZERLAND.