TUBNER. 570 TUBNER. (1827-38), in which several line engravers under Turner's supervision brouglit this art to a new perfection, are Avonderful in color and atmos- pheric effect. In 1830 appeared the lovely illus- trations to Rogers's Ituly; in 1S33 tlie first of his Rivers of France, the drawings for which are among the most perfect of his works. He also illustrated the works of Byron, Scott, Milton, Campbell, Rogers's roems, and Moore's Epi- curean. The third period of Turner's art (1835-45) is characterized by the relinquishment of classic composition and a more direct communion with nature, of which he endeavored to render his splendid impressions, foreshadowing the modern Impressionists. Though it tended to become more dreamlike and unreal in character, his work was more wonderful in color than ever. To this period belong many of his greatest works, such as the Slave Ship" ( 1840, Boston Museum) ; "Snow Storm" (1842); "Approach to Venice" ( 1843) ; Rain, Steam, and Speed" ( 1844) — all in the National Gallery. Here belongs also a series of attempts to represent vague thoughts in color language, like "War— The Exile"' (ib., 1842), and many of his pictures of Alpine scenery, the grandeur of which he has rendered as no other painter, in such paintings as "The Spliigen." After 1845 his mind and sight began to fail; but though his work was incoherent, it was still good in color. He began a new series, "The Whalers," which he did not live to com- plete. He died at Chelsea, December 19, 1851, and was buried in Saint Paul's Cathedral. He left a fortune of £140,000, and a splendid collec- tion of his own works, 262 oils, 135 water colors, 1757 studies in color, and almost innu- merable sketches. In later life he refused most tempting offers to sell his best works, although the buyers intended to bestow them upon the nation, because he wished to do this himself. Most of these works are in the National Gallery. He intended that his fortune should be devoted to the establishment of pen- sions for indigent Knglish artists, but his will was broken and most of it fell into the hands of the lawyers and relatives. Though very economi- cal, even sordid in his personal habits, he was generous to others. There has been nuich useless prattle about his private life and character. Those who knew him liest found him infinitely tender, a kind and dutiful son, and a faithful friend. His brusque manner was but a foil of his retiring disposition, which made him inac- cessible to society. It is ditficult to reconcile these characteristics and the exquisite refinement of Turner's art with the supposed coarse char- acter of his relation to women. Turner's life was one continuous course of prosperity, and he fully achieved the fame he so ardently desired; in 1802 he was elected Academician, and in 1808 became professor of perspective at the Academy. He easily eclipsed in the public favor all landscapists of his day. In later life his works were attacked, but to atone for this he found in John Euskin the most elo- quent advocate ever possessed by any artist, though these eulogies have created several wrong ideas about Turner's art. The chief characteris- tic of Turner does not consist, as Ruskin main- tains, in his fidelity to Nature. He was indeed one of the profoundest students of Nature that ever lived ; but he sought to render her more ideal, beautiful, and sublime than reality, much as was dune l)y Byron and Shelley in literature. His master |)assiiins in art were the rendition of light, in which lie surpassed even Claude, and that subtle quality which Ruskin calls the "Turnerian mystery," by which objects are ren- dered with a certain hazy indistinctness of the highest poetical effect. His chief technical qual- ity is not naturalism, but a splendid and bril- liant, though sometimes unreal, color. He was as subtle and refined in drawing as in composition. Others have painted more intimate phases of landscape than he. but in range of subject, im- agination, and sublimity Turner has never been equaled. Though tmsound in oil technique, as is evinced by the ruined state of many of his best works, he was a constunraate master of water-color (q.v. ), which in his hands became a new art. He was himself an excellent etcher and engraver, trusting to mezzotint to produce the light and shadows ; and his designs for illus- trations produced a new school of line engraving in England. His facility of execution and dili- gence were well-nigh incredible, as may be seen from the large number of works in the public and private collections of England. A number of collections in the United States, including the Metropolitan Museum, Lenox Library, and Van- derbilt collection in New York City, possess good examples of his work, both in oil and water- color. BiBLiOfiRAPHT. The most brilliant and sym- pathetic appreciation of Turner is Ruskin's mod- ern Painters (London, 1843-GO), the chief pur- pose of which is to show his superiority to all painters who preceded. Its value is, however, rather literary than critical, and it should be compared with the more sober judgment of works like Hamerton's Life of Turner (ib., 1879). Of the other lives, Thornbury's (ib., 1862) is uncritical, though containing valuable material; far better is that of Cosmo Monkhouse (ib., 1882), who also wrote the good article in the Dictionary of National Biography. Consult also the monograjilis bv Burnet (London, 1859) and Dafforne (ib., 1877). TURNER, N.T (c.1800-31). An American negro slave and insurrectionist, who was born and lived in Southampton County, Va. From his childhood he fancied himself set apart from his fellows for some great purpose, and claimed to hear voices and see visions. In 1828 he declared he had a command to rise and slay his enemies, when a sign should be given. The eclipse of the sun in February, 1831, was accepted as the sign, but nothing was done until after a peculiar solar appearance on August 13th. With four or five companions, he began near Cross Keys, on Sunday night, August 21st, by killing five mem- bers of his master's family in their beds. The conspirators proceeded, being joined by recruits until the number reached 53. killing all. even in- fants, in every house in the neighborhood. On the next morning they killed all the pupils at a school. By noon the news had spread and the band was routed by a party of white men. The excitement was intense. United States troops from Fortress Monroe and the militia from vari- ous counties of Virginia and North Carolina gathered and the conspirators were hunted like
