Studies in physiology and medicine / edited by William Stokes.

  • Robert James Graves
Date:
MDCCCLXIII. [1863]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Studies in physiology and medicine / edited by William Stokes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

    18/556
    book, across the pages of which his hand, from time to time, passed with the rapidity of lightning. Overcome at length by curiosity, and under the impression that his companion was perhaps insane, Graves watched him more attentively, and discovered that this untiring hand had been faithfully noting down the forms of the clouds which crossed the sky as they drove along, and concluded that the stranger was no common man. Shortly afterwards, the travellers entered into conversation, and the acquaintance thus formed soon became more intimate. They journeyed together, remaining for some time in Florence, and then proceeding to Rome. Graves was himself possessed of no mean artistic powers, and his sketches from nature are full of vigour and truth. He was one of the few men in whose company Turner is known to have worked. The writer has heard him describe how, having fixed on a point of view, he and his companion sat down, side by side to their work. “ I used to work away,” he said, “ for an hour or more, and put down as well as I could every object in the scene before me, copying form and colour, perhaps as faithfully as was possible in the time. When our work was done, and we compared drawings, the difference was strange; I assure you there was not a single stroke in Turner’s drawing that I could see like nature; not a line nor an object, and yet my work was worthless in comparison with his. The whole glory of the scene was there.” The tone and fire with which Graves uttered these last few words, spoke volumes for his sympathy with, and his admiration of the great painter of nature. At times, however, when they had fixed upon a point of view, to which they returned day after day, Turner would often content himself on the first day with making one careful outline of the scene. And then, while Graves worked on.
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3