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Miller: 'Turner and Girtin':"This picture"

  • context 3: 'This picture' as if it is intended to refer to the picture that follows; the picture in the possession of Dr. Nixon
    In this context it is assumed that Miller, having said that he doubts the picture in the footnote, continues by stating the location of "this picture*".
    Miller refers to a picture that he thinks is in the possession of Dr. Nixon (but, unbeknown to Miller the picture that he describes is not the picture that the Bishop claims is Turner's first oil). If this context is correct, Miller must have obtained his information from a third party and must be describing a picture that Miller believes was in the possession of Rev. Robert Nixon of Foots Cray and painted by Turner at Foots Cray, after completing 'View of Rochester' at Rochester. and the Bishop was wrong to identify 'The Country Waggon, Snowdon - Early Morning' as Turner's first oil.
    This interpretation, provides the most straightforward meaning of Miller's text; namely that there are two pictures and both claim to be the first but Nixon's is doubtful because Miller has recognised that if the paints were bought at Rochester the first painting would be made there and the next stop (on the journey back to London) would logically be Foots Cray where the second picture, started at Rochester (perhaps drawn on the canvas but not painted), as described in the footnote, was finished.
    The problem with this interpretation is that whilst there is substantial evidence supporting Douglas' picture without fishermen, boats and gales of wind there is not a scrap of evidence that a picture resembling that in the footnote was ever in the possession of Rev. Robert Nixon. That said, it is inconceivable that Robert would have given or bequeathed his entire collection to his second son. His eldest son, George, seems to have been equally deserving. Francis was just an ordinary curate when Robert died in 1837 and had not yet attained the rank which may have made Robert treat him more favourably. So there is every possibility that Robert's collection was divided equally between his two sons. In this regard it may be said that if Francis had not been elevated to high office his share of the collection might now be equally obscure.

In context 3 it is assumed that Miller believed that he was describing Dr. Nixon's picture.

nixon


If this is the correct reading of Miller's text then the two pictures painted during the first Kent tour in September 1792 were:

  • Turner's first:oil painting:
    'View of Rochester' (Later confirmed by the Nephew's Letter as 'Rochester Castle and the Adjacent Ground') for Rev. James Douglas at Rochester.
  • Turner's second oil painting:
    'Rochester Castle with Fishermen Drawing Boats Ashore In A Gale of Wind' for Rev. Robert Nixon at Foots Cray.