J.M.W.Turner:
A First-Rate taking in Stores
1818 Pencil and Watercolour, 11 x 16 Cecil Higgins Art Gallery Bedford implemented at Farley Hall in
November, after a comment by Walter Fawkes asking Turner "I want you to make me a drawing of ordinary dimensions that will
give some idea of the size of a man of war" This idea took Turners imagination. Turner said to Walters son of 15 "Come on
Hawkey, and we will see what we can do for Papa" The description of the method Turner used: he began by pouring wet paint on
the paper till it was saturated, he tore, he scratched, he scrabbled at it in a kind of frenzy and the whole thing was chaos
- but gradually and as if by magic the lovely ship, with all its exquisite minutia, came into being and by lunch time the
drawing was talked about in triumph.
|
