The upper third of the page is taken up with the following notes in ink:
Salvator Rosa painted a picture for the constable of France in a day and | carried it home, which rapidity so captivated the constable that he orderd another large | one which he likewise begun finishd and sent home. that was paid for by purses of | gold .. and as constable [?commented] which would be first weary but upon the production | of the 5
h the employer sent 2 purses and declined the rival-ship with the [?‘artist’s’ or ‘astong’, i.e. astonishing] | power of rapidity . .
1Below this towards the bottom right, written with the page turned and thus descending vertically relative to the main inscription, the following items and prices in shillings are noted (the last being one pound, eleven shillings and sixpence):
Candles 1
Trout 2
Pillow 16
Mattress 1 11 6
A last inscription is that of Turner’s executors, with the original Turner Bequest schedule number endorsed by Henry Scott Trimmer, Charles Lock Eastlake and John Prescott Knight, at the bottom left, starting in ink: ‘
No 148 | H.S. Trimmer’; then initialled ‘C.L.E.’ and ‘
JPK’ in pencil. An earlier page,
D08965 (CXXVII 1), is similarly inscribed by the executors, but as ‘No 197’.
Turner’s ‘tortuous’
2 anecdote concerning the Italian artist Salvator Rosa is similar to one from a descriptive tour of Badminton House, Gloucestershire, seat of the Dukes of Beaufort, in Richard Warner’s
Excursions from Bath (Bath and London 1801), pages 262–3:
Ascending the stairs, we reach the Dukes dressing-room, where we find, over the chimney, Salvator Rosa, by himself, fierce and dark as his own style. This artist was a man of great and varied talents, shining equally as a painter, engraver, and poet; he was born at Naples in 1615. Such was the rapidity with which he finished his pictures, that he might be said to have worked against time, of which the following plaisanterie is recorded; that being employed by one of the Constables of France to paint a large picture, he begun, finished, and carried it home in a day; this so pleased his employer, that he gave him a purse of gold, and bespoke a second, which was produced within the period, and gained him the like reward, with orders for a third and fourth, which were finished as quickly, and equally paid for; but on the production of the fifth, he received two purses, and a message, that the Constable gave up the contest. He died at Rome 1673.
There are comparable art-historical anecdotes in the Perspective sketchbook (Tate; Turner Bequest CVIII).
Eric Shanes has suggested that the list of domestic items represents items for Sandycombe Lodge, Turner’s self-designed Twickenham house, for which there are various designs in this sketchbook (see the Introduction), including trout for a meal,
3 in which case the notes may date from a year or two later than proposed here. Anthony Bailey’s suggestion that the figure ‘2’ represents the cost of live trout for the pond in Turner’s garden there
4 seems less likely.
