The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-04-27 00:00:00

ANECDOTES of the PAINTER TURNER.

In a letter to The Times, Mr. C. W. Raclclyfle,
Birmingham, gives the following anecdotes of

Turner:—

-
I am reminded, ,by the recent sale of the Munro Collection,
of the great master Turner, and it occurs to me that my first
introduction to him—many years ago, through the kindness
of my friend J. T. Willmore—may be of interest just now.
The dark, dingy, old house in Queen Anne-street, where
Turner lived, is familiar to most of us. I knocked at the
whichwas opened liy an old woman, whose head was
enveloped in a dense Mass of Mattel and linen. Turner was
at home. I was ushered into a small room OTI the right of
the hall. After some little nervous suspense the door
opened; a small man appeared, with grayish hair, beetling
eyebrows, and such a pair of small, keen, gray eyes as I had
never seen before, anu never shall see again. He had on a
dirty apron reaching nearly to his chin, sleeves of the same
dirty white on his arms, and a trowel in his right hand: his
hands and face well meared with brick-dust. This was the
great Timer. He exclaimed as be entered, "What do you
want? Don't you see I've gut a bricklaying job in hand 2"
After some little talk, he said, " I suppose you wish to see
the gallery." He kindly took me into it, and told me to
come whenever I felt inclined, but he said, "Mind and don't
give her anything "—alluding to the old woman who let me
in. I was in the gallery one day when Mr. Gillott bought
the two Venice pictures. As the man was carrying them
away in their frames, Turner said, " I did not sell you the
' frames," and made Mr. Gillott leave them behind him. Of
course they were only fit for the fire.

In addition to the above, The Times also publishes
the following :
Mr. Radclyffe's letter brought forcibly to my memory my
own first visit to the dark, dingy old house in Queen Anne-
street. His description is accurate to a degree. How well I
remember the old woman and the dense mass of flannels and
linen, and the little room to the right of the door, and the
small man with the keen, gray eyes, who came to know the
object of my visit. May 1, because of the interest there is in
such matters, now state what that object was?
One of the finest of the Turners of the Vernon collection
in the National Gallery—" The Sybil and the Goluen-bough"
—was, at the time of which I am speaking, hanging in the
drawing room of my uncle's house in Pall-mall. In the
foreground is a reclining figure, but not the figure of those
days. This latter, as well as its immediate surroundings, I
noticed was blistered and cracked, and on mentioning this
to my uncle I was sent off to report to Turner, who most
certainly, judging by his language and manner, disliked my
communication immensely.

All at once, though, his ill-humour left him, and he said,
"I remember now. Why, the figure is merely a piece of
paper cut out of my pocket-book ;" and he explained that
when the picture was nearly finished he letermined to in.
troduce the figure, and with this intention he went one night
to the life school. It was the study there made which,
having put on his picture, Lot only passed through the Ex-
hibition, but remained there for some five or six }ears after
the picture was in Mr. Vernon's possession.—l am, Sir, your
obedient servant, VERNON HEATH, 43, Piccadilly, April 20.