TURNER'S ENGLAND AND WALES.
THIS splendid publication comes so rarely under our cognizance, and' its merits are of so high an order, that we cannot be content to let it pass among the rank and file of our array of periodicals. Part X X. is the- last and the best of the work. TURNER here vindicates his fame and asserts his supremacy as a landscape painter ; and he has been most ably seconded by the engraver, J. T. WILLMORE. Yowls Castle, seated on its terraced height, crowns as lovely a scene as ever was pictured. The various foliage of the trees is indicated with a touch
light and elegant and free from mannerism, and the sedge, the sports-
man, and other objects in the foreground, are distinctly made out. These are points of excellence that we are glad to note in TURNER, who is too often slovenly in these particulars. The calm brightness
of evening, with the mist rising, conveys a sense of repose that is aided by the introduction of a couple of herons by the side of the stream, one of them on the wing. In contrast with the tranquillity of this scene, is time view of Lanthony Abbey, seated in the bosom of the mountains, and illumined by a bright gleam of sunshine bursting through time storm of rain that sweeps across the wild, romantic country, swelling the mountain torrent that chafes itself to foam. Here are two landscapes full of the poetry of nature, in which the fidelity of the imita- tion is such that the commonest observer would recognize its truth, while
hypercriticism can scarcely find a point of objection. The engravings me- rit the highest praise : with such a translator TURNER is made agreeable and legible to eyes that only see excess in his colouring and chaos in
his effects. Longslmip's Lighthouse is not rendered with equal felicity in the engraving—the sea wants fluidity ; otherwise time effect of storm is vividly represented. Time dark cloud and darker ocean are illu- mined by the phosphorescent light of the boiling surge as it dashes against the cliff, the solitary ray from the lighthouse, and the fires on
the shore. The fragments of wreck floating convey an idea of the
destruction that has taken place, and the sea-birds disturbed by the beating of the waves enhance the wild desolation of the scene. The
contention of rain and sun in the view of Worcester, the slant rays of evening sunlight across the mountains and the placid lake of Win- dermere, the light of the moon and of the furnace-fires in the view of Dudley, and the reflection of the setting sun and rising moon in the water in that of Carnarvon Castle, in Part XIX., are no less beau- tiful, though in the details these pictures are not equal to the others.
Previous page
