[PART SIX]
1830-1834
FROM THE 'INTERIOR AT PETWORTH' TO THE PERIOD OF THE 'UNFINISHED' OILS
[CHAPTER XXXVI]
1830: AGED FIFTY-FIVE
HE PAINTS THE 'INTERIOR AT PETWORTH' AND MOURNS THE DEATH OF HIS FATHER, AND OF SIR THOMAS LAWRENCE
Two events mark this year: one sad, the death of his father which affected his whole after life; the other, an epoch in his development as artist, the painting of the 'Interior at Petworth.' But first a few words about other matters.
As I have remarked before, critics are occasionally hard upon Turner, and sometimes they disagree as to what is fine, and what is poor in his work. Ruskin labelled a parcel of vignette beginnings as 'worthless.' Mr. Rawlinson, referring to the numerous small drawings for vignette illustrations, such as Rogers's Italy of 1830, and the Poems of 1834, while calling them 'marvels of execution,' also sees in them 'an unpleasant note,' often a strangely forced and extravagant colour. Monkhouse considered that it would be difficult to find in the whole range of his works two really greater (though so small in size) than the vignettes of 'Alps at Daybreak,' and 'Datur hora quieti.' Personally, I must confess to a feeling of lukewarmness in regard to the vignettes. 'The Burning of the Houses of Parliament' in Sir Edward Tennant's collection is tight and harsh in colour compared with the loose luxuriance of the oil picture.