Pictures Every Child Should Know: A Selection of the World's Art Masterpieces for Young PeopleBacon, Mary Schell Hoke
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Pictures Every Child Should Know: A Selection of the World's Art Masterpieces for Young People
Bacon, Mary Schell Hoke
Art -- Juvenile literature; Painters -- Juvenile literature; Painting -- Juvenile literature
In his old age Turner suddenly disappeared from all his haunts, and
his friends could not find him. They were much troubled, but one day
his old housekeeper found a note in a pocket of an old coat, which
made her think he had gone to Chelsea. She looked there for him, and
found him very ill, in a little cottage on the Thames River. Everybody
about called him Admiral Booth, believing him to be a retired
admiral. He had felt his death near and had tried to meet it quite
alone. He died the very day after his friends found him, as he was
being wheeled by them to the window to look out upon the river for the
last time. He was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral between Sir Joshua
Reynolds and James Barry. He left his drawings and pictures to a
"Turner Gallery," and $100,000 to the Royal Academy, to be used for a
medal to be struck every two years for the best exhibitor. The rest of
his fortune went to care for "poor and decayed male artists born in
England and of English parents only." This was to be known as Turner's
Gift, and that is why he had saved money all his life.
A few more of the numberless stories of his generosity should be
told. A picture had been sent to the Academy by a painter named Bird
It was very fine, and Turner was full of its praise, but when they
came to hang it no place could be found.
"It can't be hung," the others of the committee said.
"It must be hung," returned Turner, but nothing could be done about
it, for there was absolutely no place. Then Turner went aside with the
picture and sat studying it a long time. Finally he got up, took down
a picture of his own and hung Bird's in its place. "There!" he
said. "It is hung!"
Again, an old drawing-master died and Turner who had known the family
for a long time, was aware that they were destitute, so he gave the
widow a good sum of money with which to bury her husband and to meet
general expenses. After some time she came to him with the money; but
Turner put his hands in his pockets. "No," he said; "keep it. Use it
to send the children to school and to church."
On one occasion when he had irritably sent a beggar from his house, he
ran out and called her back, thrusting a £5 note into her hand before
letting her go.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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