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Turner, Ruskin and Constable at SalisburyAuthor(s): Selby WhittinghamSource: The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 113, No. 818 (May, 1971), pp. 272-275Published by: The Burlington Magazine Publications, Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/876641

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SHORTER NOTICES

Turner,Ruskinand Constableat SalisburyBY SELBY WHITTINGHAM

THE first Turner water-colours which Ruskin acquired were allengraved in the Picturesque Views in England and Wales series.'A later acquisition belonged to the same series: SalisburyCathedral,engraved in 1830.2 This subsequently passed from Ruskin intothe hands of Mr George Coats,3 to one of whose descendants itstill belongs, and has remained in obscurity ever since (Fig.51).The scene shows the Cathedral in the distance from Old Sarumwith Harnham Hill in the background. It is almost identically thesame viewpoint as that of a pencil drawing made by Turner in1795 in the Isle of WightSketchbook,4when the artist was preparingdrawings of Salisbury for Sir Richard Colt Hoare's abortivehistory of Wiltshire. The chief changes are the introduction ofshepherds and sheep in the foreground and a dramatic anddominating cloudscape.Ruskin at various times owned 3oo-odd Turners, but many ofthese he disposed of in his lifetime. However the Salisburyremainedin his possession until his death.5 In his notes on his collection ofTurner drawings he was full of enthusiasm for it: 'This drawingis of unsurpassable beauty in its sky, and effect of fast-flyingstorm and following sunbeams: . . . Few of the public now eversee a sunrise . . .; but we all of us are sometimes out in Aprilweather; and its soft clouds and gentle beams are entirely withinthe scope of Turner's enchantment and arrest. No more lovelyor skilful work in water-colour exists than the execution of thedistance in this drawing.'6 However his praise was somewhatqualified when he earlier described it in volume 5 of ModernPainters: 'The plain is swept by rapid but not distressful rain ...The rain-clouds in this picture are wrought with a care which Ihave never seen equalled in any sky of the same kind. It is therain of blessing - abundant, but full of brightness .. .,7

The tone of these remarks is enthusiastic, yet apologetic.This is understandable when Ruskin's condemnation of Constableis recalled: 'the showery weather, in which the artist delights,misses alike the majesty of storm and the loveliness of calmweather; it is great-coat weather, and nothing more. There is astrange want of depth in the mind which has no pleasure in sun-beams but when piercing painfully through clouds, nor infoliage but when shaken by the wind, nor in light itself but whenflickering, glistening, restless and feeble.'8In a letter of 1855 he wrote: 'I have just bought Turner's"Salisbury" - which I am specially glad to have, because Ilook upon "Salisbury" now as classic ground.'9 This was achange from his earlier attitude, when in a visit in 1848 toSalisbury he compared the Cathedral unfavourably with Giotto'sCampanile,o1 and it is tempting to think that this was partlybecause he connected Salisbury with Constable. However,though it is generally believed that Ruskin was unreasonablyprejudiced against the latter, in his critique of his art quotedabove he goes on to give just praise for all that artist's qualities.The clue to Ruskin's objection to Constable is given by ProfessorBell, who describes how, despite his preoccupation with morality,at an early age he dismissed Rembrandt as 'that sullen andsombre' painter, and the work of the pious Nazarenes as the'muddy struggles of the unhappy Germans'.I" For Ruskin, avictim of periodic melancholic bouts, 'dark' always meant'bad'.12 His comparison of Salisbury with Giotto's Campanile isprefaced by the remark: 'I shall not soon forget how profoundand gloomy appeared to me the savageness of the NorthernGothic, when I afterwards stood, for the first time, beneath thefront of Salisbury.' He sold Turner's The Slave Ship because thesubject was too painful to live with, though he considered it oneof Turner's best paintings. Hence the 'great-coat weather' of theSalisbury has to be excused by the fact that its rain is not 'dis-tressful', but is full of 'blessing' and 'brightness'. It also had aByronic quality ('the effect of fast-flying storm') which helpedto redeem its wetness; for Ruskin was an admirer of Byron toalmost the same degree as Constable detested him.13Constable in his later works became more and more gloomy,whereas Turner progressed in the opposite direction, and it wasin this period in their lives that Ruskin was growing up, whichperhaps accounts for his vast preference for Turner. One ofConstable's blackest paintings was the great Salisbury Cathedral

from the Meadows, begun in 1829. His finished painting wasdescribed by the Morning Chronicleas 'Mr Constable's coarse andvulgar imitation of Mr Turner's freaks and follies'.14 It seemsthat for once he was trying to vie with the bravura of his moresuccessful rival. In February I829 Constable was at last electeda R.A., and Turner came round to his house to tell him thenews, and the two men sat up talking together till one o'clockin the morning.15 Did their conversation touch on Salisbury?

1 L. HERRMANN:uskin and Turner,London [1968], p. 19; cf. The Connoisseur,172 [September 1969], p.40.2 On the Englandand Wales series, cf. A. J. FINBERG: The Life of J. M. W.Turner,R.A., Oxford [1961], pp.297, 300, 307, 315, 323, 342, 374, 380, 494 if.,514. The engraving is by Radclyffe, and was published on IstJune 1830. Thewater-colour was exhibited at Moon, Boys and Gravesin 1833 (FINBERG,p.cit.,p.496, No.423), when it belonged to B. G. Windus. In 1839 Windus wasdescribed as having forty of 'the choicest' drawings from the Englandand Walesseries (The Art Union[18391, P-.49). Ruskin knew Windus (FINBERG, op. Cit.,p.403), but it was from White that his father purchased the drawing togetherwith another Turner at a total cost of ?300 in August 1855 (J. J. Ruskin'saccounts, Ruskin Galleries, Bembridge School, Isle of Wight). SIR WALTERARMSTRONG:Turner,London [1902], p.276, dated the water-colour c.I828.3Glasgow InternationalExhibition, 1901, No.8; F. WEDMORE: Turner andRuskin, London [1900oo],I, P.330; W. G. RAWLINSON"The EngravedWorksofJ. M. W. Turner,R.A., London, I [I9o8], pp.145-6, No.26o.4 A. J. FINBERG: 'Turner's "Isle of Wight" Sketch-Book', Walpole Society, I[1911-12], pl.XXVIa. The drawing is on page 14b of the sketch-book. Turnervisited Salisbury again in 1811 (FINBERG:TheLife of J. M. W. Turner,p.I82),when he probably made the sketch for the drawing of the Cathedral spire for hisnewly commenced lectures on perspective (British Museum CXCV.I143; A. J.FINBERG:A Completenventoryf theDrawingsof theTurnerBequest,London [1909],P.593; FINBERG:TheLife of J. M. W. Turner,p.I76; PaintingsandDrawingsofSalisburySubjectsby Turnerand Constable,The Old Deanery, Salisbury [1967],No.9). The sheet of paper of this drawing is watermarked I812.5 It is shown in a painting of Ruskin's bedroom which Arthur Severn did inApril 1900. I am indebted to Mr J. S. Dearden for this information.6 J. RUSKIN:TheWorks,ed. E. T. COOKnd A. WEDDERBURN,London [1903-12],XIII, p.441, No.38, where it is dated by the editors '1830-40'. Ruskin remarkselsewhere: 'in this entirely aesthetic painting by Turner of Salisbury Cathedral,the spire is quite perilously out of the perpendicular, and the shepherd has oneeye somewhat higher than the other' etc. (ibid., XXIII, p.212).7Ibid., VII, p.I9o.

8 Ibid., III, p.I91.9Ibid., XXXVI, p.224.10 Ibid., VIII, p.188.11Q. BELL: Ruskin,Edinburgh and London [1963], p.17.12 Ibid.,PP.39, IO8-9.13 'The World is well rid of Lord Byron - but the deadly slime of his touchstill remains' (John Constable'sCorrespondence,d. R. B. BECKETT,I [1968],p.i6i). For the Byronic element in Turner, cf. K. CLARK: nglish RomanticPoetsandLandscape ainting 1945], p.A5 (reprinted from The Memoirsand Pro-ceedingsof the ManchesterLiteraryand PhilosophicalSociety,LXXXV, Session1941-3). Ruskin's admiration for Byron is well known, and both he andTurner probably regarded Constable in the same light as Carlyle did Words-worth: 'an honest rustic fiddle, good, and well handled, but wantingtwo ormore of the strings,and not capable of much!'.14 A. SHIRLEY: The Rainbow.A Portraitof John Constable,London [1949], pl.XIII.15 BECKETT,Op. it., p.242; cf. FINBERG, p.cit., pp.312-13.

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52. SapphonspiredbyLove,composesn Odeto Venus,by George S. Faciusand J. C. Facius after Angelica Kauffmann. Stipple engravingpublished by John Boydell, Ist May 1778. 53. Sappho,by Angelica Ka~uffmann.Signedand dated 1775. Canvas, 129-5 by 147'4 cm.(Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida.)

51. SalisburyCathedralrom OldSarum,by J. M. W. Turner. c.1830. Water-colour, 30 by 46 cm. (Private Collection.)

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AngelicaKaufmann- 'Sappho'BY PETER A. TOMORYTHIS painting (Fig.53)1 has not been identified since JohnRingling bought it in London c.I928, for then its title was,improbably, Lady as Venus with Cupid by her Side. In the 1949catalogue of the collection Suida changed it to A Maiden withCupidand through a misreading of the Greek failed to recognizethe lady's correct identity. The lines translated read:

So come again and deliver mefrom intolerable painand are lines 25-26 from Sappho's first Ode to Aphrodite.

The painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy in I775(169) with the title Sappho,which, with an enlarged compositionand several changes, was engraved in 1778 by G. S. and J. G.Facius.2 The plate title, Sappho, inspired by Love, composesan Odeto Venus (Fig.52) was obviously intended for a less erudite andsophisticated public, if one allows also for the cache-sex use ofCupid's drapery and the addition of the lyre. There is no casefor the painting being cut down since its measurements andproportions agree with some other paintings by the artist.Sappho was probably acquired shortly after its first exhibitionby John Baker Holroyd, later Baron Sheffield (1781 in the Irishpeerage) and Ist Earl of Sheffield (1802 in the English peerage),for the painting was sold (Sotheby, 22nd February 1928, bt.Field) as from Sheffield Park, Sussex. There is no trace of it inearlier sales. Since it was sold with other Holroyd portraits of theperiod, including a portrait of John Holroyd's daughter, Dorothyby Angelica, it seems safe to assume that it was not a lateracquisition by the Sheffield family. It is possible that the artistfirst met the Holroyds in Ireland when she was there in 1771-72.There is good reason to believe that the subject had a personalassociation for the artist, for apart from the evidence of anengraving Sapphoby John Pye of 1774 (I have not seen this), theonly other work on the subject with which she was connectedwas her etching after her husband's (Antonio Zucchi) SapphoConversingwith Homer or History and Music, 1781 and she was saidto have been the model for Sappho.3 Not unlikely, since Fuseliobserved that 'Her heroines are herself'. Comparing the Sapphohere with her two self-portraits (National Portrait Gallery 430,c.1770; Hermitage, Leningrad 7261, c.1780-5),4 there areconsiderable similarities in the shape of the head, the mouth inparticular and the eyes.The plate title (Fig.52), while more explicit than that of thepainting, is not true to the Ode, in which the poetess, sorelytroubled, is expressly asking for love to come again to her. Thereis no question that the artist too must have been sorely troubledin and around 1775.As is well known, Angelica had contracted in 1767 a bigamousmarriage with one Brandt posing as his master, Count Frederickde Horn, and although a deed of separation was drawn up in1768, after the imposture was discovered, it was not until 1780that she sent papers to Rome for an official annulment. Mean-while, having first met William Wynne Ryland, the engraver,in 1767, she was in very close contact with him - suspected asbeing more than an artistic connection - from 1774 onwards asone of her principal print-makers.5 Ryland was married but kepthis wife hidden from society. Finally, the extravagances broughton by his acquisition of a mistress c. 1780 led him to the scaffold forforgery in 1783. Another suitor was, of course, Antonio Zucchi,who though very much older, possibly afforded the promise of asafe harbour after the stormy seas of younger blood. In addition,although the claim has been discounted by his biographers,Marat later said he had seduced Angelica Kauffmann at herhouse in Golden Square, where he was received from time totime with his close friend, Antonio Zucchi. Marat was in Englandfrom 1767 to I777/8. Lastly, while she could not anticipate it atthe time she was working on her own painting, Nathaniel Hone

1 Angelica Kauffmann, Sappho, il on canvas, 51 by 58 ins. (129'5 by 147'4 cm).Signed and dated, Angelica Kauffman pinx. 1775. No.329, WILLIAME. SUIDA:A Catalogue f thePaintings .. RinglingMuseumof Art[I19499].

2 G. S. andJ. G. Facius,Sappho,nspiredyLove, omposesnOde oVenus,tippleengraving336 by 238 mm., Ist May 1778, Museumof Art, Rhode IslandSchoolof Design.3 V. MANNERS and G. C. WILLIAMSON: AngelicaKauffmannR.A. . . . London[1924], p.22I, n.I, the greater part of the other factual information in thisnotice has been taken from this source.4Angelika Kauffmannund Ihre Zeitgnossen. Exhibition Catalogue, Bregenz[2969],p.48, PIs.I, 5.5For a list of Ryland's engravingssee R. BLEACKLEY,he Connoisseur,2[1905],p. x10.

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SHORTER NOTICESAt any rate it must have been about this time that Turner madehis Salisbury water-colour, and that Constable was planning hisgrandest treatment of the Cathedral, with which he was pre-occupied up till the end of his life."6This confrontation is interesting, as rivalry between the twoartists was particularly intense at this time. Constable was onthe whole very generous in his appreciation of Turner, and in1813 referred to his 'wonderful range of mind',17 but in the sameyear his great friend, Archdeacon Fisher, could tell him that hepreferred Turner's exhibit at the Academy (Frosty Morning) toConstable's,18 and he must always have resented the superiorsuccess of Turner. In 1825 he wrote: 'I deeply feel the honour ofhaving found an original style & independent of him who wouldbe Lord over all - I mean Turner'.'9 However the comment ofthe Morning Chronicle raises the question whether he really wasmaintaining this independence. At any rate it was now Turner'sturn to feel threatened. In the 1831 Academy exhibition Con-stable was on the hanging committee and placed his SalisburyCathedralrom the Meadows in a better place than one of Turner'spaintings, much to the latter's wrath.20 And in the followingyear paintings by the two artists were hung next to each other.Turner, thinking his offering to be literally outshone byConstable's, added a 'round daub of red lead' which made eventhe vermilion and lake of Constable's painting look weak.Constable, on seeing this, exclaimed, 'he has been here and fireda gun'.21 It is tempting therefore to think that Turner was paint-ing his Salisbury, the 'home-ground' of Constable, deliberately inrivalry with the latter. At all events Ruskin's comments on itillustrate the importance of mood for critic and artist alike in theRomantic period, a factor which modern art historians ignore attheir peril. After all, it was Constable who said: 'Painting is butanother word for feeling'.2216 he first mention of the new picture seems to be on 9th August 1829(BECKETT,op. Cit.,p.251). But it is not impossible hat the idea for it wasmaturing n Constable'smind beforehis visit to SalisburynJuly.17 FINBERG, op. Cit.,p.197.18BECKETT,p.Cit., .21.19 Ibid., p.191.20FINBERG:p. it.,p.327.21 Ibid.,p.337. In 1826Turnersupposedly oned downa pictureso as not tooutshineone by Lawrence ibid.,p.295).22 BECKETT,Op.it.,p.78.Thesequestionswill be furtherdiscussed n a pamph-let, Constable nd Turner t Salisbury, o be published by the Friends of SalisburyCathedral.