Thornbury recounts that at a dinner party at which Turner was present, a lady (she exists to-day, and is still making similar observations) who had seen the 'Ulysses' said to her neighbour, Mr. Judkins, 'the clerical artist,'—'Don't you now think it is a sweet picture?'
'Turner, glum and shy, opposite, is watching all this. He sees where the lady's eyes fall after she addresses her whispers to Mr. Judkins. His little beads of eyes roll and twinkle with fun and slyness. Across the table he growls:—
'"I know what you two are talking about, Judkins—about my picture."
'Mr. Judkins suavely waves his glass and acknowledges that it was. The lady smiled on the great man.
'"And I bet you don't know where I took the subject from; come now—bet you don't."
'Judkins blandly replied:—
"Oh, from the old poet, of course, Turner; from the Odyssey of course."
'"No," grunted Turner, bursting into a chuckle; "Odyssey; not a bit of it. I took it from Tom Dibdin. Don't you know the lines:—
'He ate his mutton, drank his wine.
And then he poked his eye out.'"'
Plate XXII. Ulysses Deriding Polyphemus (1829) Tate Gallery
To this year also belongs 'Chichester Canal,' unfinished, a scene of peace and quiet beauty, and was it this year or the next that he painted 'The Evening Star,' perhaps in its way one of the most appealing of the 'unfinished' Turners? How beautiful, how perfectly satisfying it would be if only the figure of the Shrimper and the dancing dog had been omitted. Truly a contrast to the splendour of the 'Ulysses.' There the sun was rising in fiery magnificence with the horses of Phoebus dancing up from the waves, and all that mythical world aglow with colour: here the sun is setting over the darkening sea, and in the mystical afterglow gleams the evening star reflected in the water that ripples gently to that lonely beach.
The authority for ascribing 'The Evening Star' to this period is to be found in some verses on page 70 of the 'Worcester and Shrewsbury' Sketch-Book, dated 1829-30, among which the following fragments have been deciphered:—
'Where is the star which shone at ... Eve'—'
The gleaming star of Ever ... '—
The first pale Star of Eve ere Twilight comes
Struggles with ... '