205 



TURNER, JOSEPH MALLORD WILLIAM. 



TURNER, THOMAS HUDSON. 



206 



different periods, but so large a number of his best works thanks to 

 his munificence are now public property, and through the care of 

 Mr. Wornum have been BO well arranged, dated, and catalogued, and 

 rendered so easy of reference, that a special mention of any is needless. 

 A cursory examination (with attention to the dates) of that collection, 

 and of the other examples of Turner's pencil in the public galleries, 

 will sufficiently illustrate what has been said of the progressive and, 

 as it were, tentative character of bis mind; and a studious considera- 

 tion will convince the visitor that even in what seem Turner's wildest 

 aberrations from the sobriety of nature, there is a foundation of truth 

 for the idea he has endeavoured to work out, and that his failures, 

 while they arise sometimes from wilfulness, arise more often from his 

 attempting to represent unusual phenomena by materials utterly 

 inadequate for tho purpose. Turner in fact seems never to have 

 understood the limits of his art, and in seeking to accomplish what is 

 impracticable with such means as he possessed, and with such neces- 

 sarily imperfect skill, he became extravagant and bizarre. Although 

 eccentricity of colour and indefiniteness of form were at all times 

 charged upon his paintings, the extreme development of this fault is 

 chiefly urged against the works executed during the last ten or twelve 

 years of his life, and unquestionably with all there is of unfailing 

 suggestiveuess, to an artistic eye, in every one of them, it is upon 

 these works that censure will eventually rest. Yet it is remarkable 

 that to this period belongs the work in which, by general consent, 

 his unrivalled powers as a landscape-painter are seen in their fullest 

 development, his 'Childe Harold, or Modern Italy,' which was painted 

 in 1832 ; and to this period also belong some of his most poetic efforts, 

 including 'The Fighting Temeraire lugged to her last Berth' (1839), 

 and the ' Slavers throwing overboard the dead and dying Typhon 

 coming on ' (1840). 



Tui'uer died on the 19th of December 1851, in humble lodgings, 

 which he had taken in an assumed name, by the river-side at Chelsea. 

 He was buried with some state in the crypt of St. Paul's Cathedral 

 by the side of Reynolds, Wilkie, Fuseli, and others of our eminent 

 painters. Turner was a man of unsocial and reserved manners, and 

 mauy gossiping stories are related of his coarseness and love of money : 

 but they bear on their face a coloured and exaggerated character. It 

 is certain that he had hoarded his money for no selfish purpose. For 

 many years he had refused to sell some of his best pictures, and when 

 any such, piinted and sold in his earlier years, were offered for sale 

 he if possible purchased them. On his death it was found that he 

 had by his will bequeathed to the nation all the pictures and draw- 

 ings then collected in his residence, No. 47, Queen Anne-street West, 

 on condition that a suitable gallery was erected for them within ten 

 years ; and his funded property to found au asylum at Twickenham 

 for decayed artists. Unfortunately the will was unskilfully drawn, 

 and a suit ia chancery ensued, but it was compromised by the 

 engravings and some other property being transferred to the next of 

 kin who disputed the will, while the paintings and drawings were held 

 by the nation. The oil paintings, one hundred ia number, include 

 many of his finest works as well as examples of his pencil from the 

 very outset to the termination of his career : they are for the present 

 exhibited at Marlboro ugh- House. The finished drawings, which 

 number several hundreds, and the sketches, which amount to some 

 thousands, have been (or are being) arranged, cleaned, and mounted 

 with rare skill and patience by Mr. Ruskin, who volunteered his ser- 

 vices to the government ; and a choice selection of them is now hung 

 on screens at Marlborough-House. Among those now exhibited are 

 many admirable drawings in colours, and numerous sepia drawings 

 made for the ' Liber Studiorum,' the Rivers, &c., some of which are 

 of an exquisite beauty and brilliancy of effect, probably unequalled 

 among drawings of that character. The nation aho possesses in the 

 collections presented by Mr. Vernon and Mr. Sheepshanks several 

 other choice examples of Turner's pencil. 



There is no need to add anything to what has been said respecting 

 the rank which Turner holds among the landscape painters either of 

 his own or an earlier time. But as his merits are still sometimes 

 contemptuously denied perhaps in part owing to the indiscriminate 

 eulogy, which has of late years been heaped upon him and as it 

 is sometimes said that, if he were the great painter so strongly 

 affirmed, foreign artists and writers on art would not be slow to 

 acknowledge his superiority it may be well to quote the calm 

 judgment of a German writer whose authority is admitted, and 

 whose opinion is the result of a repeated consideration of his works. 

 Dr. Waagen says "In point of fact no landscape painter has yet 

 appeared with such versatility of talent. His historical landscapes 

 exhibit the most exquisite feeling for beauty of lines and effect of 

 lighting : at the same time he has the power of making them express 

 the most varied moods of nature a lofty grandeur, a deep and 

 gloomy melancholy, a sunny cheerfulness and peace, or an uproar 

 of all the elements. Buildings he also treats with peculiar felicity ; 

 while the sea in its most varied aspect, is equally subservient to his 

 magic brush. His views of certain* cities and localities inspire the 

 spectator with poetic feelings such as no other painter ever excited 

 in the same degree, and which is principally attributable to the 

 exceeding picturesqueness of the point of view chosen, and to the 

 beauty of the lighting. Finally, he treats the most common little 

 subjects, such as a group of trees, a meadow, a shaded stream, with 



such art as to impart to them the most picturesque charm. I should, 

 therefore, not hesitate to recognise Turner as the greatest landscape- 

 painter of all times, but for his deficiency in one indispensable element 

 in every work of art, namely, a sound technical basis." ('Treasures of 

 Art in Great Britain,' 1854, vol. i., p. 383-4.) 



TURNER, SAMUEL, author of 'An Account of an Embawy to 

 Tibet,' was a native of Gloucestershire, and born about the year 1759. 

 Having entered the service of the East India Company, he gained the 

 confidence of Warren Hastings, and was sent by him on a con- 

 gratulatory mission to the new Dalai Lama in 1783. In 1792 Turner 

 distinguished himself at the siege of Seringapatam, and was sub- 

 sequently sent ambassador to the sultan of Mysore. He returned to 

 England soon afterwards with a large fortune. He was seized with 

 apoplexy on the night of the 21st of December, 1801, in an obscure 

 street in London, and having no papers about him to intimate his 

 name or place of abode, was carried to the workhouse in Holborn. 

 When discovered by his friends, it was deemed unsafe to remove him, 

 and he died in the workhouse on the 2nd of January, 1802, in his 

 43rd year. Turner was a Fellow of the Royal Society, and a member 

 of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. Besides the account of his embassy 

 to Tibet, published in 1800, which is still a standard work, he con- 

 tributed to the ' Transactions ' of the Asiatic Society an account of 

 his interview with the Teshoo Lama, and an account of Poorungeer's 

 (a native priest in the employment of the company) journey to Tibet 

 in 1785, both in vol. i. ; and au account of the Yak of Tartary, in vol. 

 iv. The account of his interview with the Teshoo Lama was re- 

 printed as a pamphlei at Oxford in 1798. The account of the embassy 

 was translated into French by Caste"ra, and into German by Sprengel. 



TURNER, SHARON, was born in London on September 24, 1768. 

 He was educated at Pentonville, at a school kept by the rector of St. 

 James's Clerkenwell, and at the age of fifteen articled to an attorney. 

 On the death of his master, before his clerkship had wholly expired, 

 he succeeded him in his business. Even during his clerkship he had 

 felt the promptings of a literary taste, and had occupied his leisure 

 by studious reading and composition. While in business for himself 

 he began to collect materials for his ' History of the Anglo-Saxons,' of 

 which the first volume was published in 1799, and the third in 1805. 

 It is on this work that his reputation chiefly rests. He was the first 

 English author who had taken the pains, or had had sufficient know- 

 ledge, to investigate the valuable remains left to us in Anglo-Saxon 

 records. He consulted the original manuscripts with great industry 

 and intelligence, and the result has been that, though his views have 

 been more than once assailed, they have been generally sustained now 

 that the study of Saxon literature has been more appreciated, and the 

 authenticity of his materials more completely understood. The 

 work soon took a permanent place in the historical literature o f the 

 country, and, encouraged by his success, he continued his history 

 from the Norman conquest to the death of Elizabeth, publishing 

 at different times the volumes of a distinct period ; the three sub- 

 divisions being re-published together under the title of ' The History 

 of England from, the earliest period to the Death of Elizabeth,' 6th 

 ed., 2 vols. 8vo, 1839. This portion, though distinguished by a large 

 amount of industry, and the discovery in consequence of a few 

 hitherto unknown facts, was not equal to the previous portion. 

 Where the field was less new he had no advantage over previous 

 writers ; his views had little originality, and his treatment of his 

 subject had no superior merit. In 1829, after suffering from illness 

 for some years, he retired to Winchmore-hill, where he prepared and 

 published in 1832 the first volume of his ' Sacred History of the 

 World, as displayed in the Creation, and subsequent events to the 

 Deluge. Attempted to be philosophically considered in a series of 

 Letters to a Son.' Two other volumes completed it, the object being, 

 from temporal history, to establish the principle of minute providen- 

 tial agency or supervision. In 1843 the death of his wife occasioned 

 him much distress, and increased his illness. At length he was com- 

 pelled to return to London, where, in his old residence in Red Lion- 

 square, he died on February 13, 1847. Besides the works above- 

 uieutioned, he published a volume of essays and poems under the 

 title of ' Sacred Meditations, by a Layman ; ' a ' Prolusion on the 

 Greatness of Britain, and other subjects;' 'Richard III., a Poem;' 

 and he contributed two or three articles to the ' Quarterly Review.' 

 Some letters which he addressed to the Royal Society of Literature, 

 of which he was an associate, on the affinities of the various lan- 

 guages of the world, have been added to the last edition of his ' Anglo- 

 Saxons.' 



*The REV. SYDNEY TURNER, so long the indefatigable chaplain and 

 chief of the Reformatory School of the Philanthropic Society at Red-hill, 

 near Reigate, and so well known as the earnest and zealous advocate 

 of reformatory schools generally, is a son of Mr. Sharon Turner. He 

 has published ' Reformatory Schools. A Letter to C. B. Adderley, 

 Esq., M.P.,' Svo, 1855 ; and edited a new edition (1848) of his father's 

 'Sacred History of the World.' In 1857 he was appointed Inspector 

 of Reformatories in England and Scotland. 



TURNER, THOMAS HUDSON, was born in London in J815. 

 His father was a printer in the employment of Mr. Bulmer in Pail- 

 Mall, but dying young and in difficulties, his family was assisted by 

 Mr. W. Nicol, the nephew and successor of Mr. Bulmer, who placed 

 young Turner at school at Chelsea, where he early distinguished him- 



