New-York tribune., 1876-12-07
THE JOHNSTON COLLECTION.
TURNER'S "sLAyE SHIP"
THE ARTIST IL ONE OF MS Widest MO-

a nassug notice-Turner's "Slave-Ship" and Holman
uunt,s Isabella and the Pot OF BASIL
before now expressed regret that II Turner
cos 70 be introduced at all to our American public he
,,d NOT have been introduced by work or works
ht vould have recommended him TO tie people among
bom be was 10 stranger, aud not by picture
o this Of the slaveShp," that is iucomprehenshe to
na neOple out every ten and so diagreeae 10 the
~ that they look at long enough to compre-
bend IL.
everybody who writes about Turner has much 10 say
about his periods Ibis first his second and his third
nerod-or manner, is sometimes said NO douot
rict scientific classification would justify some nOmeh
cature of this sort But the unscientic laity please
themselves with popular and characteristic names
Tho talk about Turner's pictures, his reasonable
,,ctures and his mad pictures The "Dolbadern Chsue
a. the philadelphia Exhibition was an example OF the
tame sort the "Save-Ship" is an example OF the au
sort What we wish we could have had Is some speci-
mons NJ the reasonable sort Had some OF these Deeh
ent aver our word for it the public would nave louhu
tba there is enough madness Mr. Turner's method at
tbs hest of times TO make the "Slave-Smp appear
merely another phase of the same matter Iurner "hen
he started out in life as painter ran on h'No
while in the rut marked ot for hun by the IasniOn VI
the day but he soon tired of these bonds anu
flung out OF the traces and for the rest OF his ne was
lorious libertine Yet for long time he was ike 'ho
falcon that from its highest soaring will come DOWN
obedent to call and settle ITS masters wrSt anu
even when he most exulting in his freedom nc Wouu
work for publishers make duh pictures to order OF
dn country seats. Not weary the reader with deta
Il ia we believe that Turner's development was not
40 regular that We could without the aid OF
dates or other information than that obtain
able from the pictures themselves, settle
the order in which they painted except in gene
raj sort of way Turner has been compared to Shake
he has been called the Shakespeare OF Painting
d be resemblcd the great master this that the pas
sage of the years his life cannot be read in the spirit
or in the method his works Perhaps the remark
nnlies 10 the works of all great We believe be-
we are told so that Chaucer wrote his Canterbury
Tales when he was old, but would guess 1t from
the mere reading of them. He is one of the
olymPian bards who sing
That always fnd us young.
And always keep us so
And IN spite OF dogmatsm yet decline to believe
that much that material is known about the order OF
shakespeare's plays that much can ever he known
except on more positive evidence than the sort OF spec
tr,m ANALYSIS that is being applied to them. We
could do little better with Turner's pictures If he had
not lived in an age OF printing and pcturedealers ana
academy xhibons. in an age when eyerybodyS every
deed be be great small is Observed set IN notebook
learned and rOe and nothing left for the next
age TO find out After Turner got the bit well in his
teeth he might at almost any time have painted the
Saye Ship it is not eliminating point IN frenzy
it is only climax in series OF cmaxes and eXtaV-
agant as IL seems to us, it is only one extraVa-
eapce out OF many and in England in the National
Gallery among the crowd Of Turner'S, where 1t OF right
belongs 1t would much of its power to puzzle and
confound We venture to advise every one who looks al
IL and is for the first time IN this country hRG
where IL caL comfortably and adequately seem 10 us
miss from his mind the notion that he is looking ~ an
actual scene Mr Ruskin, in the extract from Modern
Painters printed in the catalogue, has clearly defined
in the opening sentences the conditions Of the sea and
the sky represented the canvas. We sec the Two
great ridges of enormous swell, not hiSh nor local. 0ut
low broad bcayne of the whole ocean, And we see the
sunset flaming in the heaven, and all its splendor re
ected in the water the heaven So much is real
and we think every one who will take the time to look at
the picture with reference only to these facts viii adj
NIT that it is magnificent in its reality But the trouble
for majority OF begins with tie foreground OF the
picture where. what the French would CALI the PeesS
iseaUes gathered together, tho authorities Tor the
statement implied the original title OF the picture IN
the catalogue Of the exhibition Of the Royal Academy for
1910 II was there called believe, SLAYER Throwing
her slaves Overheard TyphoOn Coming on" We sec u
few hands, OF what look like hands. and we sec some
shackes chains which make the evidence stronger
but the niece jseatre ezeence Is herelh iheshap
OF a huge, extravagant, quiverng leg with shnck!e
roupa its ankle all that is left body which has been
deyoured by a swarm OF fishes attracted
from all sides TO this rich prey Inc
absurdity OF this part OF the picture Is no
greater than find in poetry. and what we excuse IN
Bon Jonson-thnk Of the descriptions in Vopone ana
the Alclcmist --or in Keats; what we admire IN
these men why should we blame II in Turner OF
course there never such leg outside OF Ra6eas OF
Victor Hugo or Edgar Poe but then tnero never were
such fishes mot even in Aquarium-tbo Hebender,
the Kinc1yo and the Maneating Shark arc Oumatched
here and science dumbfounded nor has tnerc Deen since
the DAYS when the prophet made the to swm iron so
defiant of the laws OF gravlatiOn as these rugs hhc
chains tnat float apOn the waters and make reecOns
in the waves and shadows on their surface III IS
our serious belief that Turner had 10 moral purpose
whatever in painting this picture was seriously
bent neither on rebuking United States for her
sin of slavery nor on rebukDg slavery ITSELF
We believe lie painted the sunset ard the water Ior ms
own delight and that an had to bo invented for
getting in tho richOokDg black rings OF which nc was
so fond and which he put into so many OF his pictures
and drawings To give these rings reason for being
the ship and the slaves were invented, and this
gave Turner a chance to paint those fishes ia
which he delighted as much he did in rings,
or more It has been told, and we sec no reason 10
doubt it, that the flag which is floating on the water was
put in "a All afcrhought because Turner wanted p oI
blue there to cool his picture WITH aud 1t is called WIN 10
particnlar reason the American ag-there being neither
stripes nor stars II is not at all meant tha turner pun
In these fish aud rings Of iron in defiance OF the laws OF
composition and Of color. On the Contrary no pu' ten
IN because be needed precisely tie forms and coOrs tey
him but he was the last man In the ord TO distress
himself because these incidents Improbable or I'M
possible The big leg is certainly cOarsely coneeiYed
and coarsely painted horror but 1t Is after all excupe
in sort because had 10 be painted In such way as ~
emphasize the that the slaves have been tDro"h
overheard and reconcile us the more easily 10 the sur
roundings OF this object But we end as we begun ts
a nifty that we could not have been allowed
IN ace more OF Turner than this one specl
men Of him when he was in his widest, leas;
-,casonable least happy mood IL is a pity that
,h n uicturc should have been exposed 10 still further
iudgne by being included IN q collection OF orderly,