Part 5 (1/2)

91 It was in such a state of society that the landscape of Claude, Gaspar Poussin, and Salvator Rosa attained its reputation It is the complete expression on canvas of the spirit of the tinorant terror, and Gaspar the dull and affected erudition

It was, however, altogether i continue The age which had buried itself in forreeary at last of the restraint; and the approach of a new era was marked by the appearance, and the enthusiastic reception, of writers who took true delight in those wild scenes of nature which had so long been despised

92 I think the first triters in wholy manifested are Mrs Radcliffe and Rousseau; in both of wholed in the one case as merely dramatic, and in the other with enuine, and intense, differing altogether in character from any sentiments previously traceable in literature And then rapidly followed a group of writers, who expressed, in various ways, thewhich had now becoe Of these, the principal is your own Walter Scott Many writers, indeed, describe nature her intensity the peculiar passion for what is majestic or lovely in _wild_ nature, to which I a The whole of the poem of the ”Lady of the Lake” is written with almost a boyish enthusiasm for rocks, and lakes, and cataracts; the early novels show the sahland scenery; and the feeling isand affectionate appreciation of the Gothic architecture, in which alone he found the elements of natural beauty seized by art; so that, to this day, his descriptions of Melrose and Holy Island Cathedral, in the ”Lay of the Last Minstrel” and ”Marmion,” as well as of the ideal abbeys in the ”Monastery” and ”Antiquary,” together with those of Caerlaverock and Lochleven Castles in ”Guy Mannering” and ”The Abbot,” remain the staple possessions and text-books of all travelers, not so much for their beauty or accuracy, as for their _exactly expressing that degree of feeling hich ether with Scott appeared the group of poets--Byron, Wordsworth, Keats, Shelley, and, finally, Tennyson--differing widely inmore or less in this love for natural scenery

93 Now, you will ask me--and you will ask me most reasonably--how this love of nature init is as strong in the infidel Shelley as in the sacred Wordsworth Yes, and it is found in far worse men than Shelley Shelley was an honest unbeliever, and a man of warm affections; but this new love of nature is found in the ene Sue, in Due Sand--and that intensely How is this?

Si is reactionary; and, in this phase of it, common to the diseasedin the fever of intemperance will cry out for water, and that with a bitterer thirst than a hts in themore than in the wine cup The water is not dishonored by that thirst of the diseased, nor is nature dishonored by the love of the unworthy That love is, perhaps, the only saving element in their minds; and it still remains an indisputable truth that the love of nature is a characteristic of the Christian heart, just as the hunger for healthy food is characteristic of the healthy fra for nature, there necessarily arose a new school of landscape painting That school, like the literature to which it corresponded, had many weak and vicious elements mixed with its noble ones; it had its Mrs Radcliffes and Rousseaus, as well as its Wordsworths; but, on the whole, the feeling hich Robson drewdraws ether pure, true, and precious, as coested the landscape of the seventeenth century

94 Now observe, how sireat ancient landscape divided into its three periods--Giottesque, Leonardesque, titianesque Then you have a great gap, full of nonentities and abortions; a gulf of foolishness, into the bottom of which you ive a nauarda e passa,”

and then you have, lastly, the pure, wholesome, siive you one in a moment; for the whole character and power of that landscape is originally based on the work of one man

95 Joseph Mallord Williahty years ago The register of his birth was burned, and his age at his death could only be arrived at by conjecture He was the son of a barber; and his father intended him, very properly, for his own profession The bent of the boy was, however, soon manifested, as is always the case in children of extraordinary genius, too strongly to be resisted; and a sketch of a coat of ar a customer, obtained for hi customer's advice, the permission to follow art as a profession

He had, of course, the usual difficulties of young artists to encounter, and they were then far greater than they are now But Turner differed fro to take anything to do that caarret to produce unsalable works of ”high art,” and starve, or lose his senses

He hired hi to wash in skies in Indian ink, on other people's drawings, ashis supper into the bargain ”What could I have done better?” he said afterwards: ”it was first-rate practice” Then he took to illustrating guide-books and al that wanted cheap frontispieces The Oxford Alle sheet, with a copper-plate at the top of it, consisting of a ”View”--you perhaps, some of you, know the kind of print characteristic of the last century, under which the word ”View” is always printed in large letters, with a dedication, obsequious to the very dust, to the Grand Signior of the neighborhood Well, this Ale at the top of it, dedicated, I think, always to the head of the College; and it owed this, its principal decoration, to Turner for s of some old seals, made by him for a local book on the antiquities of Whalley Abbey And there was hardly a gentleland, towards the close of the last century, of which you will not find so in the local publications of the time, inscribed with the sireat difference between Turner and other s for the coether conteht it beneath him, or because he was ill-paid There does not exist such a thing as a slovenly drawing by Turner With what people illing to give him for his work he was content; but he considered that work in its relation to himself, not in its relation to the purchaser He took a poor price, that he ht _learn_ Of course sohter than others, and they vary in theirnever finished to the degree of those which are executed in color But he is _never_ careless According to the time and means at his disposal, he always did his best He never let a drawing leave his hands without havingdone better in it than he had ever done before; and there is no i of the period which is not executed with a _total_ disregard of time and price, and which was not, even then, worth four or five tienius, a s; though it is seldoenius, men either thus feel or thus labor Turner was as far beyond all other men in intellect as in industry; and his advance in power and grasp of thought was as steady as the increasing light of sunrise

97 His reputation was soon so far established that he was able to devote himself to more consistent study He never appears literally to have _copied_ any picture; but whenever any master interested hiht it necessary to study him, he painted pictures of his own subjects in the style of that master, until he felt himself able to rival his excellencies, whatever they were There are thus multitudes of pictures by Turner which are direct imitations of other , Gaspar Poussin, Vandevelde, Cuyp, and Reued by Mr Leslie that, because Turner thus in his early years imitated many of the old masters, therefore he reater than himself The _non sequitur_ is obvious I trust there are fewfrom their inferiors; and I fear there are fewbut as deserving of i Turner, indeed, would have been more than mortal if, in a period utterly devoid of all healthy examples of landscape art, he had been able at once to see his way to the attain it, he had felt hih to defy the authority of every painter and connoisseur whose style had formed the taste of the public, or whose dicta directed their patronage

98 But the period when he both felt and resolved to assert his own superiority was indicated with perfect clearness, by his publishi+ng a series of engravings, which were nothing else than direct challenges to Claude--then the landscape painter supposed to be the greatest in the world--upon his own ground and his own terms You are probably all aware that the studies made by Claude for his pictures, and kept by him under the name of the ”Liber Veritatis,” were for the most part made with pen and ink, washed over with a brown tint; and that these drawings have been carefully facsi supposed to be models of taste in landscape composition In order to provoke comparison between Claude and his, called the ”Liber Studiorus of Claude,--an etching representing as done with the pen, while mezzotint stood for color You see the notable publicity of this challenge Had he confined himself to _pictures_ in his trial of skill with Claude, it would only have been in the gallery or the palace that the comparison could have been instituted; but now it is in the power of all who are interested in the matter to make it at their ease[32]

[Footnote 32: When this lecture was delivered, an enlarged copy of a portion of one of these studies by Claude was set beside a sinified portion of one by Turner It was i the cost of the publication, to prepare two s with the care requisite for this purpose; and the portion of the Lecture relating to these examples is therefore omitted It is, however, in the power of every reader to procure one or e for himself whether the conclusion of Turner's superiority, which is assumed in the next sentence of the text, be a just one or not]

99 Nohat Turner did in contest with Claude, he did with every other then-known ed, and vanquished, each in his own peculiar field, Vandevelde on the sea, Salvator a done this, set himself to paint the natural scenery of skies, mountains, and lakes, which, until his time, had never been so much as attempted

He thus, in the extent of his sphere, far surpassed even titian and Leonardo, the great round work neither titian nor Leonardo _could_ be excelled; but titian and Leonardo were throughly conventional in all _but_ their foregrounds Turner was equally great in all the ele additions to the received schemes of landscape art, that all modern landscape has been founded You will neverlandscape painter ill not at once frankly confess his obligations to Turner, not, observe, as having copied hi been led by Turner to look in nature for what he would otherwise either not have discerned, or discerning, not have dared to represent

100 Turner, therefore, was the first man who presented us with the _type_ of perfect landscape art: and the richness of that art, hich you are at present surrounded, and which enables you to open your walls as it were into so h which you can see whatever has charmed you in the fairest scenery of your country, you will do well to remember as _Turneresque_

So then you have these five periods to recollect--you will have no difficulty, I trust, in doing so,--the periods of Giotto, Leonardo, titian, pastoralisun His greatness is, as yet, altogether denied by many; and to the full, felt by very few But every day that he lies in his grave will bring soh those eyes, now filled with dust, generations yet unborn will learn to behold the light of nature

You have so no proof before you of what I so boldly assert But I would not have accepted your invitation to address you, unless I had felt that I had a right to be, in this matic I did not come here to tell you of my beliefs or iven fifteen years of my life to ascertain, that this man, this Turner, of who you, will one day take his place beside Shakespeare and Verulaland

Yes: beside Shakespeare and Verulam, a third star in that central constellation, round which, in the astronomy of intellect, all other stars make their circuit By Shakespeare, humanity was unsealed to you; by Verulam the _principles_ of nature; and by Turner, her _aspect_ All these were sent to unlock one of the gates of light, and to unlock it for the first tireatest, Turner was the most unprecedented in his work Bacon did what Aristotle had attempted; Shakespeare did perfectly what aeschylus did partially; but none before Turner had lifted the veil from the face of nature; the majesty of the hills and forests had received no interpretation, and the clouds passed unrecorded from the face of the heaven which they adorned, and of the earth to which theyof his personal character You have heard him spoken of as ill-natured, and jealous of his brother artists I will tell you how jealous he was I knew hi that time had much familiar intercourse with hi of a brother artist, and _I never once heard him find a fault_ with another man's work I could say this of _no other_ artist whom I have ever known

But I will add a piece of evidence on this matter of peculiar force

Probably many here have read a book which has been lately published, to my mind one of extreme interest and value, the life of the unhappy artist, Benjamin Haydon Whatever may have been his faults, I believe no person can read his journal without co to the conclusion that his heart was honest, and that he does not _willfully_otherwise, the expression I a to quote to you would have all the more force, because, as you know, Haydon passed his whole life in ith the Royal Academy, of which Turner was one of the most influential members Yet in the midst of one of his most violent expressions of exultation at one of his victories over the Academy, he draws back suddenly with these words:--”But Turner behaved well, and did ive you however besides, two plain facts illustrative of Turner's ”jealousy”