Turner's Sketches and DrawingsFinberg, A. J. (Alexander Joseph)
History
Turner's Sketches and Drawings
Finberg, A. J. (Alexander Joseph)
Turner, J. M. W. (Joseph Mallord William), 1775-1851
The drawings made during the tour in the north of England, which Turner
made in the summer of 1797, belong almost entirely to the first kind. In
one sketch-book we find most of the more important ruined abbeys and
castles of Yorkshire, Durham, and Northumberland drawn with the most
delightful ease, accuracy, and charm. Here we have Kirkstall Abbey drawn
from every available point of view, Ripon Cathedral, studied both
without and within, Barnard and Richmond Castles, Dunstanborough,
Bamborough, Durham Castle and Cathedral, Warkworth, Lindisfarne and
Norham. The drawing of the interior of Ripon Cathedral, reproduced as
Plate IX., is merely an average example of the kind of work that Turner
now seemed to produce without the slightest effort. The most complicated
structure and detail now presented no difficulties to his well-trained
eye and hand. The ease with which he mastered all the material forms
that met his eye may have left his mind at leisure to enjoy the moral
atmosphere of the buildings, may have left his imagination free to range
backward over its past history; but there is no trace of emotion or
imagination in the graceful play of these clear-cut, accurate, and
methodical outlines.
Melrose Abbey formed the highest point north in this journey. Leaving
Melrose, Turner struck across to Cumberland, no doubt passing through
Carlisle to Keswick. After the bustle and noise of much of the northward
half of his journey, the peace and quiet of the English lakes must have
been noticeable. In looking through the hundred or more pencil sketches
made at Keswick, Buttermere, Ullswater, Patterdale, Windermere,
Coniston, etc., one is struck by the absence of the conventional note of
Romantic horror. There is no trace of what used to be called the bold
and appalling singularities of nature.[11] There is indeed a marked
absence of human activity in these drawings. We are alone with
[Illustration: _PLATE XII_
RUINED CASTLE ON HILL
WATER COLOUR. ABOUT 1798]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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