'Richmond,' and 'Rome from the Vatican,' exhibited the following year, are the largest pictures Turner painted.
In May and June, presumably after his return from Italy, Mr. Fawkes of Farnley opened an exhibition of all the water-colours he possessed at his house in Grosvenor Place. The first two rooms contained drawings by Havell, Robson, Hedphy, Hills, Prout, Varley, Fielding, de Wint and others; the third room was reserved to Turner. The exhibition was a great success, and we are told that the public had an opportunity of seeing Turner 'moving about the rooms, the principal figure in his own triumph.' A contemporary critic seems, however, to have made up his mind that Turner's visit, to Italy had done him temporarily no good. In the Annals of the Fine Arts, of the year 1820, appeared the following criticism of Turner's works in the exhibition held at Mr. Fawkes's house in Grosvenor Place, which must have included some of the Italian drawings:—
'Turner appears here in his original splendour and to his greatest advantage. Those who only know the artist of late and from his academical works will hardly believe the grandeur, simplicity and beauty that pervade his best works in this collection.... The earlier works of Turner before he visited Rome and those he has done since for this collection are like works of a different artist. The former, natural, simple and effective; the latter, artificial, glaring and affected.'
Plate XV. Church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo (1819) Tate Gallery
Was the water-colour of the 'Church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo,' made in Rome in 1819, that now hangs, to our delight, in the new Turner Gallery, one of the drawings shown at the exhibition in Grosvenor Place? Hardly. For this beautiful drawing is 'natural, simple and effective,' not 'artificial, glaring and affected.' Turner saw this glowing church with his own eyes. Although in Italy, he was at home with himself when he painted this quiet interlude, undisturbed by the Roman art fever that heated and harassed his imagination.
A simpler simplicity, a purer and more mystical vision of colour was eventually to come to him; but not yet. For the next few years the Italianised Turner was to be finding his way, through the insistent memories of Italy, to the real Turner.