These broken lines may be a reference to 'The Evening Star,' which Mr. Finberg believes was painted about this time. The Official Catalogue of the Tate Gallery, however, suggests that 'The Evening Star' may be of the same date as 'The New Moon' exhibited in 1840.
Two of the other 'unfinished' oils first exhibited in 1906 may have been painted about this date. Each is similar in composition to sepia drawings for the Liber Studiorum, the 'Rocky Bay with Figures' to the 'Glaucus and Scylla,' which was never published, and the 'Sunrise, a Castle on a Bay,' to the 'Solitude.' Turner, of course, gave no title to these suggestions of colour and atmosphere, and he did not exhibit them. It is only literary pictures that require titles or descriptions. In one, the sun has risen behind a mist-shrouded castle on a bay; in the other, sunrays gleam through a natural arch and light the deep green sea. Greek galleys are moored in the bay and drawn up on the shore. A man with outstretched arms may be dimly seen haranguing a group of sailors. We shall never know when or where he painted these 'delight pictures.' They call up the spirit of Turner the poet as the Sketch-Books call up the spirit of Turner the wanderer.
My eyes fall on the following words in his own handwriting, and for the moment he seems to be present, noting nature, ready to record some sudden beauty.
'Moonlight . . . . . .
Fish . . . . . . .
Temple . . . . . . .
. . . . . . Copper
Venice . . . . . . .
Sunrise . . . . . . .
Hare . . . . . . .
Ship—Storm . . . . .
Evening Sunset . . . . . .
Visions were then passing through the mind of the dumb poet who once 'confessed that he knew much more of his art than he could explain.'
Plate XXIII. The Evening Star (1829 or after) Tate Gallery