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Miller: 'Turner and Girtin':"This picture" s. 4(iv).2

context 2. "This picture" as if it is 'View of Rochester' s. 4(iv)-2

In this context 'View of Rochester' is the same picture as 'Rochester Castle with Fishermen Drawing Boats Ashore In A Gale of Wind' which according to the footnote was a finished picture (so it was not a picture started and left unfinished).

• Consider the section with the central historical information removed:

  "He commenced his first oil picture a 'View of Rochester'. Whether this picture* was the first finished, is doubtful."

A circumstance which may have given rise to this situation is one where Turner started 'View of Rochester' but before it was completed started and completed a different picture which became his first finished. Later he returned to Rochester and completed 'View of Rochester' which became his second finished oil. -
Could Miller have credibly believed (in 1854) that Turner (in 1792) went to Rochester, got paints, started a picture, went to Foots Cray, started and finished a second picture, then returned to Rochester and completed the first picture? The second picture becomes the first picture finished and the original first picture becomes the second picture finished!
The Nephew's Letter was not yet written so Miller could have imagined a scenario in which Turner travelled from London to Rochester, obtained paints and canvas, started painting 'View of Rochester' but before it was complete visited Foots Cray and (now in the possession of paint and canvas from Rochester) painted a picture for Rev. Robert Nixon. Having completed Nixon's picture, Turner returned to Rochester where he completed 'View of Rochester' for Rev. James Douglas. It was public knowledge (in 1854) that there were two competing claims to Turner's 'first' oil; one being Rev James Douglas' picture (in the possession of Dr William Hering) and the other being Rev. Robert Nixon's picture (in the possession of his son, the Bishop of Tasmania). Miller would also have known that Hering's claim was refuted by Turner; in which case Miller may have thought it wise to be slightly ambiguous but decidedly on the side of the Bishop.

Although, with the publication of the Nephew's Letter, we now know that 'View of Rochester' was 'Rochester Castle and the Adjacent Ground', started and completed when the canvas was bought in Rochester, this reading of Miller's account, albeit rather awkward, is tenable for the time at which it was written and may be Miller's intended interpretation.

The picture in the footnote is (in Miller's mind) 'View of Rochester'. It was the first started but not the first finished.

It should be noted that it is rather illogical to call View of Rochester his first oil picture and then go on to say that it was not the first finished - timing is very general as regards 'this time' all we can deduce is this time = first kent tour.

The statement about Nixon's picture which follows seems (in Miller's mind) to be the better claim to first finished albeit that the first paints were bought in Rochester.

It appears that Miller is certain that the first oil started was 'View of Rochester' so we must ask what doubts Miller may have had as to whether it was the first finished.
Miller may be intending to say - this is a description of 'View of Rochester' but it was not Turner's 'first' oil because there is a better claim, (Nixon's picture was finished first?)