And here is his confused criticism of Rubens's 'Landscape with a Rainbow':—
'The Rainbow appears to me the most to be considered as a picture, not but this as well as the rest of his landscapes is defective as light and the ... (? profusion) of nature. The woman in blue strikes the eye and prevents it straying to the confused and ill-judged lines, but as to the figure (? figures) in Mid, which is light ... (? lit from) the opposite side, a proof that he wanted light on that side and either chose to commit an error than continue the light by means of the ground or (? to) where the sky is placed. Then it is lead by the yellow within the trees to the sky and thence to the Bow, which is hard and horny by the use of the vivid Blue in the distance, which is another instance of his distorting what he was ignorant of—natural effect.'
Among the pictures Turner exhibited this year are 'Jason in Search of the Golden Fleece,' the earliest of his dragon pictures, that sometimes seem rather grand, but usually merely grandiloquent. It was probably inspired by Salvator Rosa. Turner referred to 'Jason' in later years as 'an old favourite with some,' and Ruskin thought 'Jason' showed 'high imaginative faculty.' How Ruskin studied Turner! Listen to this from Modern Painters—:
'In very sunny days a keen-eyed spectator may discern, even where the picture hangs now, something in the middle of it like the arch of an ill-built drain. This is a coil of the dragon beginning to unroll himself.'
'Jason' is now well shown at the new Turner Gallery, but I, for one, infinitely prefer the bold study for this composition, hanging in an adjoining room. Sketch-Book LXI. is called the 'Jason' Sketch-Book.
To this period of his bolder experiments in oil belong such breezy works as 'Dutch Boats in a Gale' at Bridgewater House, and 'Fishing Boats in a Stiff Breeze,' both done in emulation of Van de Velde. Turner said that seeing a fine Van de Velde in a shop-window had made him a sea-painter.
In a letter from Andrew Caldwell to Bishop Percy, dated 14th June 1802, Turner is spoken of 'as beating Loutherbourg and every other artist all to nothing.'
It was not difficult for Turner to beat Van de Velde and de Loutherbourg all to nothing. We think so now, they thought so then, if Andrew Caldwell expressed the general opinion.
'A new artist has started up—one Turner. He had before exhibited stained drawings, but now paints landscapes in oil, beats Loutherbourg and every other artist all to nothing. A painter of my acquaintance and a good judge declares his painting is magic; that it is worth every landscape painter's while to make a pilgrimage to see and study his works. Loutherbourg, he used to think of so highly, appears now mediocre.'