CHAPTER IV

.--Of Truth of Clouds:--Thirdly, of the Region of the

Rain-Cloud.

Sec. 1. The apparent difference in character between the lower and central clouds is dependent chiefly on proximity. 244 Sec. 2. Their marked differences in color. 244 Sec. 3. And in definiteness of form. 245 Sec. 4. They are subject to precisely the same great laws. 245 Sec. 5. Value, to the painter, of the rain-cloud. 246 Sec. 6. The old masters have not left a single instance of the painting of the rain-cloud, and very few efforts at it. Gaspar Poussin's storms. 247 Sec. 7. The great power of the moderns in this respect. 248 Sec. 8. Works of Copley Fielding. 248 Sec. 9. His peculiar truth. 248 Sec. 10. His weakness, and its probable cause. 249 Sec. 11. Impossibility of reasoning on the rain-clouds of Turner from engravings. 250 Sec. 12. His rendering of Fielding's particular moment in the Jumieges. 250 Sec. 13. Illustration of the nature of clouds in the opposed forms of smoke and steam. 250 Sec. 14. Moment of retiring rain in the Llanthony. 251 Sec. 15. And of commencing, chosen with peculiar meaning for Loch Coriskin. 252 Sec. 16. The drawing of transparent vapor in the Land's End. 253 Sec. 17. The individual character of its parts. 253 Sec. 18. Deep-studied form of swift rain-cloud in the Coventry. 254 Sec. 19. Compared with forms given by Salvator. 254 Sec. 20. Entire expression of tempest by minute touches and circumstances in the Coventry. 255 Sec. 21. Especially by contrast with a passage of extreme repose. 255 Sec. 22. The truth of this particular passage. Perfectly pure blue sky only seen after rain, and how seen. 256 Sec. 23. Absence of this effect in the works of the old masters. 256 Sec. 24. Success of our water-color artists in its rendering. Use of it by Turner. 257 Sec. 25. Expression of near rain-cloud in the Gosport, and other works. 257 Sec. 26. Contrasted with Gaspar Poussin's rain-cloud in the Dido and Aeneas. 258 Sec. 27. Turner's power of rendering mist. 258 Sec. 28. His effects of mist so perfect, that if not at once understood, they can no more be explained or reasoned on than nature herself. 259 Sec. 29. Various instances. 259 Sec. 30. Turner's more violent effects of tempest are never rendered by engravers. 260 Sec. 31. General system of landscape engraving. 260 Sec. 32. The storm in the Stonehenge. 260 Sec. 33. General character of such effects as given by Turner. His expression of falling rain. 261 Sec. 34. Recapitulation of the section. 261 Sec. 35. Sketch of a few of the skies of nature, taken as a whole, compared with the works of Turner and of the old masters. Morning on the plains. 262 Sec. 36. Noon with gathering storms. 263 Sec. 37. Sunset in tempest. Serene midnight. 264 Sec. 38. And sunrise on the Alps. 264

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