ore certain, and his
choice of subject more adapted to the exhibition of them. But his powers
did not attain their highest results till towards the year 1840, about
which period they did so suddenly, and with a vigor and concentration
which rendered his pictures at that time almost incomparable with those
which had preceded them. The drawings of Nemi, and Oberwesel, in the
possession of B. G. Windus, Esq., were among the first evidences of this
sudden advance; only the foliage in both of these is inferior; and it is
remarkable that in this phase of his art, Turner has drawn little
foliage, and that little badly--the great characteristic of it being
its power, beauty, and majesty of color, and its abandonment of all
littleness and division of thought to a single impression. In the year
1842, he made some drawings from recent sketches in Switzerland; these,
with some produced in the following years, all of Swiss subject, I
consider to be, on the whole, the most characteristic and perfect works
he has ever produced. The Academy pictures were far inferior to them;
but among these examples of the same power were not wanting, more
especially in the smaller pictures of Venice. The Sun of Venice, going
to sea; the San Benedetto, looking towards Fusina; and a view of Murano,
with the Cemetery, were all faultless: another of Venice, seen from near
Fusina, with sunlight and moonlight mixed (1844) was, I think, when I
first saw it, (and it still remains little injured,) the most perfectly
_beautiful_ piece of color of all that I have seen produced by human
hands, by any means, or at any period. Of the exhibition of 1845, I have
only seen a small Venice, (still I believe in the artist's possession,)
and the two whaling subjects. The Venice is a second-rate work, and the
two others altogether unworthy of him.

In conclusion of our present sketch of the course of landscape art, it
may be generally stated that Turner is the only painter, so far as I
know, who has ever drawn the sky, (not the clear sky, which we before
saw belonged exclusively to the religious schools, but the various forms
and phenomena of the cloudy heavens,) all previous artists having only
represented it typically or partially; but he absolutely and
universally: he is the only painter who has ever drawn a mountain, or a
stone; no other man ever having learned their organization, or possessed
himself of their spirit, except in part and obscurely, (the one or two
ston