The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-11-20
Ensravinss of Turner
 in an Alabama Home
By Will T. Sheehan
 

some of Turner's greatest services to
 art were rendered in the culture and
 development of engraving. Because of
 this the engravings which were made
 under his eye, by his direction by his
 own work are of special and peculiar
 merit. .4-,e y.s.i g.s Turner died in 1851, at the ripe age or 76 years. He was no less remark
 able for eccentricity than for his world moving genius. He was pie tured by his contemporaries as a little man, i'll dressed and of insignificant
 appearance. But in the Topper cottage there hangs a splendid engraving made
 by an artist friend while he was yet
 a young man. It shows a strong, fine
 face lit up by large, luminous eyes. the eyes of an artist.
 He was of humble percentage, his father having been a barber in the
 suburbs of London. In a room adjoin- ing the barber shop Turner was born in 1775. -H His early talents were de- veloped in a room back of the barber shop. He first won the honor of ex- hibiting in the Academy in 1793. and following his fine exhibit for the year of 179s, he was elected to the asso- ciateship of the Royal Academy. With this his genius having been recog- nized, his fortune was made. The first thing he did was to remove his father from his sdualid surroundings and keep him at the first studio and home the artist owned.
 | His onward march to unchallenged supremacy of the world of art was sustained and continued.
 He associated with and instructed the leading engravers and the plates he turned out were admitted to be of un- equalled merit. From the plates which attracted such high commendation from the entire world some of the en- cravings In the Topper home were
 made. Che of the rare copies of the Liber Studiorum, made byf Turner for art students and declared by experts to be the best work of the sort ever turned out came into the possession of Samuel Topper and was sold by him upon the division of the estate for a good round sun. VI g Yg Turner never married. His oddfty demanded always seclusion and silence. He had but few friends and as con versationalist he was decidedly disap- pointing. In the expression of his character of his soul he was confined almost exclusively to his marvellous genius in art, for he was neither a writer nor a lecturer.
 He was a man of indefatifable en- lergy He turned out works of art and works of the rarest merit at a rate
  Drought him a fabulous return, but he Inever cared for money, neither for the thnigs that 1t could buy nor for the lsatisfaction its possession might bring. He demanded only an opportunity for the expression of his art. The stream of wealth that followed were only in- cidentals to the main purpose of his life.
 He died worth more than half a mill E lion dollars an enormous fortune for any artist and an enormous fortune in E those days for any man.
 | Turner drew up his own will. It was a peculiar document, in that when | 1t was contested, the court could not | solve its numerous contradictions and | tell its purposes. He directed that his private fortune of 10000 pounds be set aside for the founding of an es- l tablishment for the maintenance of poor and needy English artists. His | next of kin, however, entered suit | Samuel Tepper of Camden was of those ', who sought to recover for his kin the large fortune left by the artist In the pursuance of this purpose and in tho | furthering of the lawsuit Mir. Pepper went twice from Camden to London. | The outcome of the suit was vic | tory for the relatives of Turner. The
 | Royal Academy was awarded the sum
 | of 20, 900 pounds from the estate and | the pictures left by the artist also
 went to the Academy. The residue oI the fortune was divided among the