Thomas Green, of Ipswich, is known to fame—or perhaps I should say to the present writer—for the inscription in his diary of the following brief criticism of Turner's oil picture, exhibited in the Royal Academy of 1797, called 'Fishermen Coming Ashore at Sunset, Previous to a Gale ':—
'June 2nd,1797.—Visited the Royal Academy Exhibition. Particularly struck with a sea-view by Turner; fishing-vessels coming in, with a heavy swell, in apprehension of tempest gathering in the distance, and casting, as it advances, a night of shade, while a parting glow is spread with fine effect upon the shore. The whole composition bold in design and masterly in execution. I am entirely unacquainted with the artist; but if he proceeds as he has begun, he cannot fail to become the first in his department.'
Dayes, an architectural draughtsman, the master of Girtin, said of Turner:—
'The way he acquired his professional powers was by borrowing where he could a drawing or picture to copy from, or by making a sketch of any one in the exhibition early in the morning and finishing it at home.'
Another contemporary remarked of Turner, 'He must be loved for his works, for his person is not striking or his conversation brilliant '; a third described him as 'eccentric, but kind and amusing.' Blake, who was one of his pupils, complained of being left quite alone, and Thornbury states that he was too reserved and tongue-tied to be able to teach what he knew, even if he wished to disclose his hard-earned secrets. Turner never disclosed any of his secrets. What he knew he kept.
Plate VII. Study for a Picture of Norham Castle. Water colour (about 1799) Tate Gallery
The Inventory from 1795 to 1800 fills nearly eighty pages of minute records of his sketching tours. On one of the leaves of the 'South Wales' Sketch-Book, dated 1795, I find this, but, with the exception of the words 'Walls x White Lyon Inn,' not in his own handwriting:—
'To Tenby, 20 miles. Walls x White Lyon Inn. Before you visit Tenby view the Castles at Llanstephen and Laugharn (Larn as it is called). Llanstephen Castle stands at the entrance of the River Towy. At Tenby view the cliffs, caverns, rocks, islands, etc., etc.'