Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/655

 In England. 625 elements whilst the children of the earth are fighting out their terrible battle strikes us with a feeling akin to pain, whilst suggestions of human suffering and failure add a pathetic sadness to many a scene of lonely beauty. Turner painted both in oils and water colours, and there is no doubt that much of the transparent brightness of his pictures in oils is the result of his application to them of the principles generally confined to water colours. In the words of Redgrave (' Century of Painters '), " It is this water-colour tendency of art, and this constant re- currence to nature, that gives the interpreting key to all his after practice." It would delay us too long to attempt to trace the gradual development of Turner's peculiar style as illus- trated in the fine collections of his works in the national galleries ; we can only name a few typical examples from the long lists given in Ru skin's ' Modern Painters ' and Redgrave's ' Century of Painters ' : — The Beach at Hastings, the property of Sir A. A. Hood ; Line Fishing off Hastings, in the South Kensington Museum; and JEneas with the Sibyl, in the National Gallery, are among his earlier works, produced at a time when his practice was largely based upon the manner of the best Dutch landscape painters and that of Claude Lorrain; and when he was far from having attained that mastery of light which distinguished his best time. The Calais Pier and Ulysses deriding Polyphemus belong to the middle of his career. Childe Harold's Pilgrimage ; the Temeraire ; Venice, from the canal of the Guidecca ; and the Approach to Venice (well known from the engraving after it by Robert Wallis), are amongst his finest pictures, and were produced late in life, but before any diminution of his powers was noticeable. eha s s