Plate IX. The Sun Rising through Vapour (1807) National Gallery

This year, in spite of the anxiety and interest of issuing the Liber, Turner had the energy to tilt at Wilkie.

In the Academy of the previous year high praise had been awarded to Wilkie's 'Politicians'; so in 1807 Turner produced 'The Blacksmith's Shop' of which the original title was 'A Country Blacksmith Disputing upon the price of Iron and the price charged to the Butcher for Shoeing his Pony.' Turner never lost faith in his own works. Twenty years later he repurchased 'The Blacksmith' at Lord de Tabley's sale.

The other picture of this year was that glowing and characteristic Turner, with the sun nearly in the centre of the picture, where Claude was wont to place it, now called 'The Sun Rising Through Vapour,' but formerly catalogued as 'The Sun Rising in a Mist,' one of the first of his large pictures of light and atmosphere. Some of his gold he outspreads for us, but he is still under the domination of the crowded, littered foreground. 'It is curious,' says Mr. Wyllie, 'that in this picture, a work that the painter thought worthy to be bequeathed to the nation, the figures of the fishermen should be taken almost exactly from a picture by Teniers, and the men-of-war are the snub-nosed high-pooped ships of Van de Velde's time, with sprit topmast at the bowsprit end and lateen mizzens.'

This picture and the 'Dido Building Carthage,' exhibited in 1815, were bequeathed by Turner to the nation on the condition that they should be hung between Claude's 'Marriage Festival of Isaac and Rebecca' and the 'Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba.' These four noble works are now the feature of the small Turner room at the National Gallery which represents the painter since the removal of the bulk of his pictures to the Tate Gallery. The Claudes hang between the Turners, the precise condition contained in the will having been cancelled by order of the Court of Chancery. I do not think, as I have already stated, that Claude suffers from the challenge.

Turner to-day, in the year of his triumph, has those who adore him; but he also has his Laodiceans, and even those who dislike his work and confess their dislike. So it has always been. Morris Moore, when asked by the Lord Elcho of his day if he considered Turner a distinguished artist, answered:—' No! Turner's early works certainly indicate a good feeling for colour, but he is absurdly overrated. The hanging of two such pictures as "The Sun Rising Through Vapour," and the "Dido Building Carthage" in the immediate vicinity of the finest Claudes and other noble works of the National Gallery is a disgrace to the country.'

The country has survived many disgraces, and we can manage to survive this one. All great men have had their detractors, and sometimes the detractor who comes to curse remains to bless. Such was the case of the Japanese artist, Yoshio Markino. On page 140 of his book, A Japanese Artist in London, he says:—

'Although I am myself such a great admirer of Turner now, I was not so until Hara

'I said to him, "The greatest heroes in this world were generally the greatest deceivers. Don't you think Turner was one of the greatest heroes and deceivers?"

'"Why?"

'"Why! come and look at this picture of 'Trafalgar Battle.' Look at these figures! Look at Nelson! What an awful drawing! I think even a ten years' old child could draw better figures. Oh, Turner was such a speculator!"'

Hara made no reply. Hara waited. Later he conducted Markino to the Tate Gallery, where the 'unfinished Turners' were exposed. Markino continues:—

'I watched one picture more than twenty minutes, then I went back to some certain pictures again. Those wonderful atmospheric effects! The colours were breathing! The tones were moving! I had quite forgotten myself until the closing time came.'

Later he returned to the National Gallery and the Turners 'looked to him quite different.' He became a Turnerite. On page 144 he announces that his blind eyes are opened, that he can now see 'the wonderful arts of Turner.'