J. M. W. Turner by Anthony Bailey

Author:Anthony Bailey [Anthony Bailey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781849762854
Publisher: Tate Enterprises Ltd
Published: 2013-08-14T16:00:00+00:00

Turner’s colleague, the sculptor Francis Chantrey, was often at Sandycombe. Chantrey, who had married his cousin, a wealthy Twickenham girl, had also had a humble start, working as a grocer’s boy in Sheffield; he had been bald because of an illness since he was twenty-one. Chantrey and Turner often went fishing during these visits; it seems likely that Turner continued to keep his boat at Isleworth. Other artists and friends came to call. John Pye, who engraved Pope’s Villa, was ‘feasted’ with the simple fare of cheese and porter.9 The Wellses came, bringing others. A close friend of the Wells family and collector of drawings, H. Elliott, who worked as a private secretary in the War Office, seems to have been devoted to Clara Wells. In July 1813 Elliott wrote to another of Clara’s admirers, Robert Finch (who owned two Turners, a watercolour and drawing), about a water-trip up the Thames:

one of the most delightful days I have ever spent – everything went off well, & there was no drawback to our enjoyment. Our four-oared boat just held our party of 17, consisting of the Wells’s, Herbsts, Miss Perks, Turner, Wilson, Thos, Chas & Jas Wheeler, Edward & I. The six last only rowed, Wilson all the way there & back, Edw & I provided one oar between us, & the Wheelers for the other two. We dined in a beautiful part of Ham Meadows upon half-made hay, under the shade of a group of elms near the river, & had coffee and tea at Turner’s new house. Miss Perks took a guitar and Edward a flute & we had a great deal of music & singing … we had good veal & fruit pies, beef, salad, &c – but our table cloth being spread on the short grass in a lately mown field we reposed after the Roman fashion on triclinia composed of the aforesaid hay …10

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