I have said that this exhibition was neither superior nor inferior to its immediate predecessors, but to say that it was not inferior was to give it very high praise. The exhibition, indeed, was one which would have done credit to any of our public galleries. The array of Turner’s masterpieces on the long south wall of the gallery produced an overpowering sense of his incomparable technical skill, his boundless energy, and the infinite variety of his mind. In the centre of the wall, in a place of honour, was enthroned the regal _Lake Nemi_ (Plate XV), resplendent with something brighter than the sunshine of Italy, a gorgeous and intoxicating dream of sensuous beauty. Beneath it hung the awe-inspiring _Longships Lighthouse_ (Plate XIII), and on the right the beautiful and pathetic “_Blue Rigi_” (Plate XVII), tender and wistful, in which the helplessness and restlessness of old age only made more manifest the sorrows and regrets with which the painter’s heart was filled. Grouped round these great masterpieces of his full strength and waning powers were works of his early manhood, like the _Cassiobury_ (Plate V), with its horses and dogs, a robust jovial scene, the _Lake of Thun_ (Plate VI), the restrained and elegant _Castle of Chillon_ (Plate VII), the dainty, coquettish _Scarborough_, several of the Rhine drawings of 1817, and many of his proudest and most exultant drawings, like the Byronic _Florence, from near San Miniato_ (Plate XVI), the _Saumur_ (Plate X), and the _Saltash_ (Plate XXI), _Prudhoe_ (Plate XXII), _Richmond Bridge_ (Plate XI), _Windsor Castle, Coventry_, and the somewhat operatic _Worcester_ (Plate XII), of the “England and Wales” series; nor must I forget the impressive _Lowestoft_, a grey and gloomy tragedy as grim and moving even as the _Longships_.
And as no man stands alone--not even the greatest of geniuses--the educational value of this array of masterpieces was increased by a fine display of the works of those English water-colour painters who had been born and had worked before Turner, and of his contemporaries. The early topographical draughtsmen whom Turner first set out to imitate and rival, were represented by Paul Sandby’s _The Swan Inn, Edmonton_ (Plate XXV), Thomas Hearne’s _Thaxted Church, Essex_, Thomas Malton Junior’s two quaint views of Bath, and many other drawings, mostly in the “stained” manner, by Wheatley, J. I. Richards, Ibbetson, William Payne, Dayes and others. Richard Wilson, the chief influence in directing Turner’s genius to imaginative design, was perforce unrepresented, as he does not seem to have worked in water-colour; but Gainsborough was represented by one of his charming drawings in chalk, and there was a noble group of nine of John R. Cozens’s austerely beautiful drawings, among them the large _Lake Albano_, and the charming _Villa Negroni_ (Plate XXIX). Turner’s contemporaries were well represented by over seventy drawings, which included three of his friend Girtin’s early works, and at least one fine example of his robust maturity--a masterly view of the ruined Lady Chapel of _Fountains Abbey_. Cotman had two fine early Girtinesque drawings, _Gormire Lake, Yorkshire_ (Plate XXXIV), and _Bridge over River_ (Plate XXXIII), a nobly designed _Lake Scene_ (Plate XXXVI), in monochrome, and a brilliantly coloured view of _Rouen_ (Plate XXXV). There were also two of Copley Fielding’s most ambitious sea-pieces--_The Pilot Boat_ (Plate XLII) and _Seaford from Newhaven Pier_, and a number of admirable drawings by De Wint, David Cox, Varley and Prout.