One of Turner’s earliest series of book illustrations was his “Southern Coast of England,” which he began about 1812 and continued to 1826. He agreed with W. B. Cooke, a fine line-engraver and an enterprising publisher, to supply forty drawings of views along the coast, from the Nore on the east to the Bristol Channel on the west; many other leading water-colour artists of the day—De Wint, Clennell, Prout, and others—being also contributors. Turner was to receive seven and a half guineas apiece for the drawings, which were of small size; but although this price was soon raised to ten, and later to twelve guineas, he became dissatisfied, and broke with Cooke, who, however, judging from the correspondence, appears to have treated him fairly. He had, moreover, given him many other commissions for drawings and had held exhibitions of these, and the engravings from them, at his rooms in Soho Square.

The Southern Coast drawings are elaborate, highly finished, and in a rather warmer tone of colour than hitherto. Many are extremely beautiful, but in some there is visible that crowding of lights and foreground figures, which from this time onwards is not unfrequent in Turner’s work. The majority of the drawings are now, alas, so faded as to give but little idea of their pristine beauty. What they all were like originally, may still be seen in the beautiful Clovelly Bay in the National Gallery of Ireland (Vaughan Bequest), and in the Lulworth Cove reproduced here ([Plate IX.]).

About the same time, Turner made a fine series of drawings, all on a large scale, of the beautiful country which lies inland among the hills, between Hastings and Tunbridge Wells. These were commissions from a well-known and eccentric M.P., “Jack Fuller,” whose country-seat “Rose Hall” (now known as “Brightling Park”) lies in the heart of that neighbourhood. Four were effectively engraved as coloured aquatints, but were never published; the rest were reproduced as Line Engravings in the “Views of Hastings and its Vicinity” (afterwards called “Views in Sussex”), published a few years later. The series remained for a long time unbroken, but it was dispersed at Christie’s last year (1908). All the “Sussex” drawings were of the highest quality, sober in colour and treatment, as befitted the character of the scenery, but the majority have been badly faded by long years of exposure to sunlight.

Somewhat similar in character to the “Southern Coast” drawings, but a little later and even more highly finished, is a series which Turner made in 1818-1819 from camera obscura sketches by Hakewill, an architect, to illustrate the latter’s “Picturesque Tour in Italy,” published in 1820. Ruskin, who possessed many of these, ranked them very highly and frequently alludes to them in “Modern Painters” and elsewhere. In the “Notes on his Drawings by J. M. W. Turner, R.A., 1878,” his last important work on art, he describes them (p. 22) as “a series which expresses the mind of Turner in its consummate power, but not yet in its widest range. Ordering to himself still the same limits in method and aim, he reaches under these conditions the summit of excellence, and of all these drawings there is but one criticism possible—they ‘cannot be better done’.” By the kindness of Mr. Morland Agnew, two of the “Hakewill” series, The Lake of Nemi ([Plate XI.]) and Turin from the Superga ([Plate XII.]), are reproduced here.

In 1817 or 1818 Turner began the drawings which were to illustrate one of his most famous works, the sumptuous “History of Richmondshire,” which still admittedly remains the finest topographical book ever published. The subjects—which were chosen for Turner by a local committee of gentlemen—were all taken from that romantic district in the North Riding of Yorkshire, on the borders of Lancashire and Westmorland, of which the town of Richmond is the centre. The work was to be the magnum opus of Dr. Whitaker whose earlier Histories of Whalley and Craven had also been illustrated by Turner, and his publishers, Messrs. Longman, spared neither pains nor expense in its production. Turner was paid twenty-five guineas each—then his usual price—for the drawings, which are now worth from one to three thousand guineas apiece. Although simple in style and in colouring as compared with the work of his later years, they have pre-eminently the charm of the ‘Yorkshire period’ already alluded to. The finest of the series, The Crook of the Lune, is, by the courtesy of its owner, the Rev. W. MacGregor, reproduced here ([Plate XIII.]). The necessary reduction in size makes it difficult fully to appreciate the great beauty of this drawing, which I regard as one of the most consummate works of Turner. Although it must have been, one would imagine, a most intricate and difficult subject for a painter, and notwithstanding that he has treated it with extraordinary minuteness of detail—you can find at least twenty different walks in it—yet all this wealth of exquisite detail is perfectly subordinated to the unity and harmony of the composition as a whole. The other “Richmondshire” drawings are scattered in various collections; many, alas, are sadly faded from constant exposure to light, notably the Hornby Castle, in the Victoria and Albert Museum, which has become a complete wreck.

May I be permitted here to draw attention to the fact—apparently little known, but none the less true—that, with the exception of some of the darker early works, no Turner drawing can be continuously exposed unprotected to light, without its ruin being eventually only a question of time. The more delicate—the more “Turneresque” it is—the quicker will that ruin be accomplished. Usually the fading is so gradual that it is unnoticed by the owner, but it is certain, and, it need not be added, the depreciation in value is equally certain. I would refer anyone who thinks this an over-statement to the Blue Book on the subject, published in 1888 (Report of the Science and Art Department on the Action of Light on Water-Colours. H.M. Stationery Office, 1888). Several striking object lessons of the effect of exposure may also be seen at the National Gallery in Turner drawings which have been returned after exhibition in provincial Galleries.

Up to about 1830, Turner’s finished drawings were mainly in transparent water-colour, but from a quite early period he employed body-colour in his sketches, especially whenever speed was necessary. “Body-colour,” it need hardly be said, is ordinary paint mixed with Chinese white or some other opaque white substance in place of water, and is frequently used on a grey or neutral coloured paper, by which means the work is much more rapid. He had recourse to that method on one memorable occasion. In 1817 he went for a three weeks’ tour in the Rhine district, and during that time produced no less than fifty drawings of fair size, i.e., at the rate of about three a day. He first stained the paper a uniform bluish-grey, which, although itself sombre in tone, effectively shows up the body-colour work, and must have effected an immense economy of time as compared with ordinary transparent colour. When he returned to England he took the drawings in a roll straight to Farnley Hall, and Mr. Fawkes, to his delight, bought them at once for £500. For a long time they remained in a portfolio unbroken, one of the treasures of the house, but a few years ago some were dispersed at Christie’s. One of these, Goarhausen and Katz Castle, is reproduced here ([Plate X.]).

In 1818 Turner went North to make drawings for “The Provincial Antiquities of Scotland,” an important illustrated work in which Sir Walter Scott, then in the height of his Waverley fame, was keenly interested, and for which he was gratuitously writing the letterpress. Sir Walter wished the illustrations to be given to a fellow Scotsman, the Rev. John Thomson, of Duddingston, an able landscape painter, but the publishers insisted that Turner’s was the name in vogue with the public, and the work was accordingly divided. The drawings, which are all highly finished and of fine quality, are entirely of Lowland scenery, including Bothwell, Crichton, and Roslyn castles, three or four Edinburgh subjects—one, Edinburgh from the Calton Hill, very striking—and the seaside fortresses of Tantallon and Dunbar. They were afterwards presented by the publishers to Sir Walter in recognition of his services in ensuring the success of the book, and they remained at Abbotsford until quite recent years.

In 1819 Turner paid his first visit to Rome, and remained there some time, going a good deal into English society at the Embassy and elsewhere. He painted a few oil pictures, but not many water-colours; among the most interesting is a fine series of studies in the Campagna, most of which are in the National Gallery. (The “Hakewill” drawings of Rome were probably all finished before he left England.)

His visit to Rome would appear on the whole to have unfavourably affected his art. His oil paintings especially, from this time began to be more and more fantastic in subject, florid in colour, and complicated in design. No doubt there are brilliant exceptions, such as Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, and others, but the old simplicity and sobriety had gone. In the water-colours also the tendency to “foxiness” and florid colour is noticeable, although not so pronounced; it is visible in the Campagna sketches just alluded to. The change was soon recognised by his admirers. In 1820 (the year following), I find in the “Annals of the Fine Arts” the following discriminating criticism of an exhibition of his works which was held that year at the town house of Mr. Fawkes of Farnley:—