DILECTA 573

(From a following letter):-

3. “The only thing I am not certain about is the exact date of that first sight of Turner. I know that in 1833 I did not go to Petworth, as my father took us all to America in the autumn of that year, returning again in the spring of ‘34; and I am inclined to think that the scene in the park, which I tried to describe, must have taken place in the September of ‘34. I remember it all as though it were yesterday; I must then have been eight years old. I was always with my father, and we spent every autumn at Petworth for many years, both before and after then. I did not think it worth mentioning, but I had been allowed to spend the whole of the day before with Sir Francis Chantrey in that boat, and recollect his damning the man very much, once during the day, for pulling ahead rather suddenly, whereby Sir Francis, who was standing up in the boat, was thrown upon his back in the bottom of her-no joke for such a heavy man.

“I think the foundation of the ship was a mere flat bit of board or chip, cut out for me by my father, and that Constable, the artist, had stuck a sail in it for me some days before (he was also at Petworth). I must have mentioned this to Turner, as I have a recollection of his saying, as he rigged it, ‘Oh, he don’t know anything about ships,’ or ‘What does he know about ships? this is how it ought to be,’ sticking up some sails which looked to my eyes really quite ship-shape at that time.

4. “I saw Turner painting at the R. A. on more than one varnishing day, as my father took me with him for several years in succession. Every academician, in those good old times of many varnishing days, was allowed to take an assistant or servant with him, to carry about and clean his brushes, etc.; and my father and others always took their sons. This went on for some years, and I recollect my disappointment when my father told me he could not take me any more, as there had been a resolution passed at a council meeting against the custom. I know that most of the pictures which I saw Turner working upon, just as I have described to you, were the Venetian subjects. Mr. Turner was always rather pleasant and friendly with me, on account, I think, of my love of the sea. I have been to his house in Queen Anne Street many times with my father, and recollect once that he took us into his dining-room and uncorked a very fine old bottle of port for us. I was much older then, perhaps fifteen or sixteen. I can never of course forget a few kind words which he spoke to me when I was myself an exhibitor at the R. A.¹ My picture was a scene on the deck of a ship of two sailors chaffing a passenger, called ‘A Sailor’s Yarn.’ Turner came up to the picture, and after looking at it for a minute, said, ‘I like your colour.’ I have the picture now, and always think of him when I look at it.

¹ [From 1843 onwards. In the exhibition of 1843 Mr. R. C. Leslie had No. 285, “Morning at Sea”; in 1844, No. 99, “Moonlight at Sea”; in 1845, Nos. 358 and 473, “Brighton Pier: a Strong Breeze” and “Evening after a Sea-fight”; in 1846, No. 1266, “The Great Horse-Shoe Fall, Niagara”; in 1847, No. 465, “A Complaint from the Forecastle”; in 1848, No. 563, “The New York and Liverpool Packet-ship”; in 1849, No. 570, “Morning: St. Brelade’s Bay, Jersey”; in 1850, No. 327, “A Sailor’s Yarn.”]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]