Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/83

TURNER 71 was elected professor of perspective to the royal academy. His works may be divided into three periods. The first extends to 1802, and covers the time employed chiefly in paint- ing English scenes in water colors, and in studying the works and methods of his English predecessors. The second period, from 1802 to 1829, shows the effects of foreign travel and study of the great continental masters. His desire to rival and if possible to surpass Claude Lorraine led to the publication in 1808 of his Liber Stvdiorum, the superiority of which over the Liber Veritatis of Claude does not how- ever afford a fair test of the comparative merits of the two painters ; Turner's studies being elaborate and careful illustrations of all the principal forms of landscape composition, while Claude's are but incidental memoranda of pic- tures. In further competition with Claude he painted his " Sun rising through a Mist," " Crossing the Brook," " Apuleia in search of Apuleius," " Dido building Carthage," and some others of less note ; but his individuality soon broke through the shackles of mere imi- tation, and from 1815 he worked according to his own ideas, indifferent to the examples of preceding masters. The variety of subjects he attempted during the 12 years previous to this time exhibits the originality and audacity of his genius. Not content with the production of works like " The Shipwreck," " The Wreck of the Minotaur," and " The Snow Storm Hannibal crossing the Alps," which presented with incomparable power the elements in their wildest fury, or like the " Edinburgh from Cal- ton Hill" and "Falls of Schaffhausen," he ran- sacked Lempriere's dictionary for subjects, painted humorous pieces, such as a " Country Blacksmith disputing upon the Price charged to the Butcher for Shoeing his Pony," and even attempted sacred history, having in 1803 exhibited a " Holy Family." From 1815 his conceptions expanded with his increasing ob- servation; and after his first visit to Italy in 1819 his style underwent a material change, light instead of dark now predominating in his pictures. His return from his second visit to Italy in 1829 begins his third period, when he employed an entirely original style. His " Bay of Baise," " Ulysses deriding Poly- phemus," " Caligula's Palace and Bridge," " Childe Harold, or Modern Italy," " Slavers throwing overboard the Dead and Dying Typhoon coming on," "The Fighting Teme- raire towed to her last Moorings," and other works produced within this period, represent the highest efforts of landscape painting in composition, in color, and in the general vein of poetic sentiment which pervades them. The change in his style of coloring, dating from this second visit to Italy, consists in an in- creased diffusion of light proceeding from the more illuminated parts of the landscape, and forming a bluish haze which contrasts too strongly with the surrounding portion in shadow. From 1833 this diffusion of light becomes more and more vertical, and from 1839 the vertical streaks are apparent in all his pictures. Every illuminated point is changed into a vertical line, the elongation being gen- erally in exact proportion to the brightness of the light. Dr. R. Liebreich, ophthalmic sur- geon of St. Thomas's hospital, London, in a lecture before the royal institution, March 8, 1872, attributes this change to a change in Turner's eyes, developed during the last 20 years of his life. After he reached the age of 55, Dr. Liebreich believes, the crystalline lenses of his eyes became dim, dispersed light more strongly, and consequently threw a bluish mist over illuminated objects. The aspect of nature gradually changed for him, and he re- produced what he saw. After his last visit to Italy in 1840, and during the last ten years of his life, the tendency toward brilliancy of light and color became the most marked feature of his style; and, disregarding individuality of form or local color, he made light with all its prismatic varieties the sole object of his stud- ies. In one department of his art, that of designing from nature for illustrated works, Turner remained in the highest request until the close of his life; and in none of his pro- ductions does he appear more truly great than in his finished drawings and engraved designs. Among the most famous of these are his " Riv- ers of England," " Rivers of France," " Eng- land and Wales," " Scenery of the Southern Coast," and the exquisite illustrations of the poems of Rogers, Byron, Scott, and others, in all of which he shows a knowledge of land- scape in its infinite variety of forms superior to that of any other artist. Fine line engravings of large size have also been executed from some of his most remarkable paintings; and, as if conscious that his reputation was destined to rest in a great measure upon this class of his works (an anticipation which has partially proved correct, as many of his pictures, owing to a careless use of pigments and varnishes, are rapidly losing their effects and crumbling to de- cay), he devoted much time to retouching the proofs, adding and altering the details down to the minutest twig ; and all of his pictures en- graved during his lifetime were executed un- der his own supervision. From 1Y90 until his death he contributed to every academy exhibi- tion except three, sending altogether 259 pic- tures. Turner never married, and exhibited an eccentricity which, whether real or assumed, subjected him to many injurious aspersions. One of his most prominent characteristics was a love of mystification, under the influence of which he worked and travelled alone, often concealed his abode for months from his most intimate friends, and died finally after a pro- tracted absence from London in lodgings at Chelsea, where he was known under the name of Brooks, his legal adviser being the only friend acquainted with his abode. He bequeathed the bulk of his large fortune to found an asylum for decayed artists, to be called "Turner's