Fighting the world of men, he never wearied in finding his way about the world of nature, recording his impressions, and adding with difficulty to his small stock of education. On the first page of the 'Dresden' Sketch-Book is the following:—
'I want to go to Berlin.
Ich will nach Berlin gehen.
I wish to see.
Ich wollte—sehen, etc.'
A little later he comes into his own joys again—twenty-one pages of 'Buildings,' and sixteen of 'Views on River,' with sketches of sunsets and rocks, distant coasts and sailing boats—anything so long as it was beautiful in light, line or movement.
[CHAPTER XLIV]
1838. AGED SIXTY-THREE
A 'NONSENSE PICTURE' OF 1838 WHICH IN 1878 FETCHED £5460 AT AUCTION
From this year onward until after 1845, when his health began to fail, Turner spent more and more time on the Continent, making his beloved impressions of the moment, and producing the unrivalled water-colours of his 'latest phase,' each a 'vision of delight.' The Sketch-Books of the period are records of foreign travel. Venice and the Lake of Lucerne were the places of his heart's choice. I know not how many times he drew the Righi, making the mountain now dark, now pale, now red, now blue; or how many times he painted Venice, her churches, her buildings and her water-ways until in the end the city in the sea became a celestial city in a dream—his dream. The exhibited pictures of 1838 are splendid failures. They included 'Modern Italy' and 'Ancient Italy,' the latter classed by Ruskin among the 'nonsense pictures.' Here is the passage: '"Caligula's Bridge," "Temple of Jupiter," "Departure of Regulus," "Ancient Italy," "Cicero's Villa," and such others, come they from whose hand they may, I class under the general head of "nonsense pictures." 'But so strange a creature is man, so deaf to advice, that this 'Ancient Italy' was sold by auction in 1878 for £5460. Some prize Turner's failures higher than the successes of other men.