1821-1829
FROM 'THE BAY OF BAIÆ TO 'ULYSSES DERIDING POLYPHEMUS'
[CHAPTER XXVIII]
1822: AGED FORTY-SEVEN
HE THROWS OFF ANOTHER 'NORHAM CASTLE' AND PREPARES TO STARTLE THE WORLD WITH 'THE BAY OF BAIÆ'
Turner sent nothing to the Royal Academy of 1821, and in 1822 he exhibited only the unimportant 'What you Will,' a mere nothing, a memory of some other painter. 'What you Will' was probably forgotten except by its owner and students of Turner; but in 1910 it appeared at Christie's and was described by an influential daily paper as a fine early Turner 'depicting a party of ladies and gentlemen in a garden near some groups of statuary.' It realised £1,176, an enormous rise on the price, one hundred and fifty guineas, which Chantrey gave for 'What you Will.' He wrote the price on the back of the picture, so that there might be no mistake. Turner would have been amazed to learn what the twentieth century thought of this experiment of his in 'figured landscape.' Perhaps the price it fetched answers a caustic comment of Hazlitt's: 'Mr. Turner's pictures have not like Claude's become a sentiment in the heart of Europe; his fame has not been stamped and rendered sacred by the hand of time. Perhaps it never will.'
A Sketch-Book of this year is called 'King's Visit to Scotland.' On leaf 58, à propos of the reception of George IV., is this note in Turner's handwriting: 'Custom House Key. The Authorities in Blue and White Gowns. Red Flags and Gold.' According to Ruskin's endorsement on the wrapper Turner went to Edinburgh by sea.