se seven might be
wisely changed; and in all of these the shipping is thoroughly
principal, and studied from existing ships. A large number of inferior
works were, however, also produced by him in imitation of Vandevelde,
representing old Dutch shipping; in these the shipping is scattered,
scudding and distant, the sea gray and lightly broken. Such pictures
are, generally speaking, among those of least value which he has
produced. Two very important ones, however, belong to the imitative
school: Lord Ellesmere's, founded on Vandevelde; and the Dort, at
Farnley, on Cuyp. The latter, as founded on the better master, is the
better picture, but still possesses few of the true Turner qualities,
except his peculiar calmness, in which respect it is unrivaled; and if
joined with Lord Yarborough's Shipwreck, the two may be considered as
the principal symbols, in Turner's early oil paintings, of his two
strengths in Terror and Repose. Among his drawings, shipping, as the
principal subject, does not always constitute a work of the first class;
nor does it so often occur. For the difficulty, in a drawing, of getting
good color is so much less, and that of getting good form so much
greater, than in oil, that Turner naturally threw his elaborate studies
of ship form into oil, and made his noblest work in drawing rich in hues
of landscape. Yet the Cowes, Devonport, and Gosport, from the England
and Wales (the Saltash is an inferior work), united with two drawings of
this series, Portsmouth and Sheerness, and two from Farnley, one of the
wreck of an Indiaman, and the other of a ship of the line taking stores,
would form a series, not indeed as attractive at first sight as many
others, but embracing perhaps more of Turner's peculiar, unexampled, and
unapproachable gifts than any other group of drawings which could be
selected, the choice being confined to one class of subject.

I have only to state, in conclusion, that these twelve drawings of the
Harbors of England are more representable by engraving than most of his
works. Few parts of them are brilliant in color; they were executed
chiefly in brown and blue, and with more direct reference to the future
engraving than was common with Turner. They are also small in size,
generally of the exact dimensions of the plate, and therefore the lines
of the compositions are not spoiled by contraction; while finally, the
touch of the painter's hand upon the wave-surface is far better imitated
by