XXXVII. ROUEN (Cathedral and Bridge in the distance) . XLVI. VIEW ON THE SEINE BETWEEN MANTES AND VERNON 233 LVI. LIII. BRIDGE OF ST. CLOUD FROM SEVRES MARCHÉ AUX FLEURS AND THE PONT AUX CHANGES BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF J. M. W. TURNER, ESQ., R.A. JOSEPH MALLORD WILLIAM TURNER, the greatest landscape painter the world has ever seen, was born, there is every reason to believe, on the 23d of April, (St. George's Day,) 1775, over the shop of his father, who followed the humble vocation of hair-dresser and barber, at No. 26, Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, and appears to have been an honest, industrious, and thriving tradesman. The house is still in existence, and is situated on the northern side of the lane, at the corner of Hand Court, but now forms part of the range of warehouses belonging to Mr. Parkin the grocer. The elder Turner dressed wigs and hair, both at home and abroad; a tolerably lucrative trade in those days of queues, toupées, and powdered curls, in a thickly peopled and then very fashionable locality. The inscription on his son's coffin represents him as seventy-nine years of age at the time of his death; and his love of mystification led some of his acquaintance to believe that he was even older. One of his housekeepers, who lived with him many 1 The old man used to say that when the Tories passed the powder-tax, in 1795, they drove out wigs, and so completely ruined his trade that it was no longer worth following. 2 This inscription, hastily adopted, is admitted by the executors to be in correct. viii BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF years, heard him assert, more than once, in reply to importunate inquiries, that he was born in the same year as the Duke of Wellington and Napoleon Bonaparte (1769), which would make him S2. The curiosity, laudable as it might be, which prompted inquiries as to his age, was distasteful to him, and if he did not resent them as personal affronts, he at least gave no direct answer. But although he disliked and discouraged all questions which had reference to his personal history, from those whose intimacy with him did not warrant such inquiries, he often, among intimate friends, volunteered anecdotes, which helped to elucidate the earlier period of his career. To several of his brother academicians, and to more than one of his amateur admirers, he has repeatedly declared that he was fifteen years of age when he first exhibited at the Royal Academy, and that he was born on St. George's Day; an admission which is in some degree confirmed by the Register of St. Paul's Covent Garden, where his baptism is recorded on the 14th May, 1775, three weeks after the date we have assigned to his birth.1 Of the earliest performances of young Turner, or the precise age at which he first exhibited a marked taste for his favorite pursuit, little is known with any degree of certainty. He is said to have been taught to read by his father, but in every other rudiment of knowledge to have been entirely self-educated. And who has made any considerable figure in the world that has not been in Turner mentions his birthday as April the 23d in the first codicil to his will; and we find, by searching the parochial books of St. Paul, Covent Garden, that his father, William Turner, was married (by license) to Mary Marshall, (both described as of the parish of Covent Garden), on the 29th of August, 1773. And in this year he first appears as a householder in the parish of Covent Garden, paying £30 rent for one half of a double house, while a Mrs. Hawkes rented the other half at a like sum. J. M. W. TURNER, ESQ., R.A. ix debted, in a great measure, to himself for his advancement? Even those who have profited by the advantage of a first-rate education will sometimes discover, after they have learned all the schools can teach, that the art of practically applying knowledge must be acquired by themselves. The general impression is that Turner took the pencil in hand, and even acquired some facility with it, before he could guide a pen, which, by the bve, to the latest hour, he never did with much ease. Certain it is, however, that drawings bearing evidence of a tolerably correct eye and a steady hand were produced by him at a very early age. The late Mr. Duroveray, whose embellished editions of popular British Classics exercised a beneficial influence on the public taste, and led to a manifest improvement in book-illustrations, showed the writer, more than twenty years ago, a very early drawing, either a copy or an imitation of Paul Sandby, signed W. Turner, which had been given to him by a friend, who had purchased it from the hairdresser's window. He also stated, on the same authority, that the cellar under the shop was inhabited by the family, and that drawings of a similar character were hung round its entrance, ticketed at prices varying from one shilling to three ! Many years ago, Mr. Tomkison, the eminent pianofortemanufacturer, related to us the following anecdote (published with some variation by M. Peter Cunningham); but as no date was mentioned, we are unable to state whether the occurrence preceded or followed the exposition of the boy's drawings for sale. With the view, in all probability, 1 Several of Turner's early drawings were purchased at this period by the late Mr. Crowle, and are in the illustrated copy of Pennant's London, which he bequeathed to the British Museum. X BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF of drawing the attention of his customer to young Turner's dexterity with his pencil, the father, who was in daily attendance on the elder Mr. Tomkison, a zealous encourager of the Fine Arts, availed himself, on one occasion, of the opportunity to take the young painter along with him, leaving him to his own devices, whilst the operations of shaving, curling, and powdering, were going on. During this interval the boy was not idle; but, attracted by the vivid colours of an emblazoned coat of arms, which was hanging in the room, took out his pencil and a sheet of paper, and in a very short time completed an exact copy of it, including a lion rampant, and sundry emblematical decorations. The dexterity of the boy and the correctness of the outline, attracted at once the attention of Mr. Tomkison, and interested him warmly in his behalf. From this date, both Mr. Tomkison and his son, (the latter is still living, hale and active, in his eighty-ninth year,) aided the views of the young artist by every means in their power. That this sport of a few leisure moments was not Turner's first attempt in the art of design, must be conceded at once; for Mr. Tomkison remembers having seen, a very short time afterwards, several drawings from the pencil of the young artist exposed for sale in his father's shop-window. Confirmed by the opinion of his much respected customer, the elder Turner determined to make his son an artist, and seemed to feel an honorable pride in proclaiming his intentions. When asked by Mr. Stothard, what William was to be, he answered, in the joy of his heart," William is going to be a painter." From this time, young Turner applied himself with the utmost assiduity to the practice of his art, and having, by the sale of his sketches and the assistance of his father, been provided with sufficient |