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Samuel Rogers and his Contemporaries
Sir Charles Eastlake to Samuel Rogers, 3 January 1852
INTRODUCTION & INDEXES
DOCUMENT INFORMATION
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Preface
Vol. I Contents
Chapter I. 1803-1805.
Chapter II. 1805-1809.
Chapter III. 1810-1812.
Chapter IV. 1813-1814.
Chapter V. 1814-1815.
Chapter VI. 1815-1816.
Chapter VII. 1816-1818.
Chapter VIII. 1818-19.
Chapter IX. 1820-1821.
Chapter X. 1822-24.
Chapter XI. 1825-1827.
Vol. II Contents
Chapter I. 1828-1830.
Chapter II. 1831-34.
Chapter III. 1834-1837.
Chapter IV. 1838-41.
Chapter V. 1842-44.
Chapter VI. 1845-46.
Chapter VII. 1847-50.
Chapter VIII. 1850
Chapter IX. 1851.
Chapter X. 1852-55.
Index
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‘7 Fitzroy Square, London: 3rd Jan., 1852.

‘Dear Mr. Rogers,—At the risk of telling you things that you have heard before, about the great man we have lost, I give you, from good sources, but without vouching for correctness, some of the stories which are now current. He had been ill, and almost confined to his bed since October. Mr. Harpur, one of the executors, and I believe a relative, only found out his place of concealment about ten days before his death. He had been residing at Chelsea for some years, with a widow named
TURNER’S DEATH407
Booth or Brooke, and it seems that he was there known only by her name. When his danger was apparent, a Dr. Price, who had formerly attended him, I think they say at Ramsgate, was sent for. On his telling Turner that he must be prepared to quit this world, our friend, perhaps observing some agitation in his doctor, said, “Go down stairs and take a glass of sherry.” When the medical man returned, T. said, “Well, what do you say now?” The same opinion was repeated. “Then,” said T., “I am soon to be a nonentity.” This expression had, I am convinced, no special meaning, but was only one of his grandiloquent phrases, meaning that his end was come. On the morning when he died, it is said that either by his desire or by accident the window-curtains were opened just before he breathed his last, and the red sunlight, struggling through the fog, shone full on his face. The body was removed to his residence in Queen Anne Street, and a cast was taken of his face under Mr. Jones’s direction.

‘The magnificent funeral procession reached St. Paul’s on Tuesday last through the crowded streets without any obstacle, and the full service, with chanting and anthem, was performed by the Dean.

‘It was not till the following day that rumours began to circulate about his will. Having now conversed with several of the Executors, I believe what follows to be near the truth. He had not more than 80,000l. in the Funds. The property in dilapidated houses and land is not considered important. On the other hand, there is a vast amount of proof impressions of engravings from his works, sketch books, drawings, and unfinished
408 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES  
pictures. All the finished pictures are bequeathed to the nation, provided a room be built for them within ten years; if not, they are to continue to be exhibited in his gallery and house till the end of thirty years, and then to be sold for the benefit of the R. Academy. The unfinished pictures and all drawings and sketches are to be sold, together I presume with the engravings. You doubtless know that he has left his Executors (you being one) 20l. apiece, but almost all his Executors were his warm admirers, and he intended to honour them by the selection. To his (natural) daughter he has left nothing, to his old housekeeper in Queen Anne St. 150l. a year and some bonds; to the Chelsea lady nothing; 60l. a year for a professorship of landscape painting in the Academy, and an annual medal for landscape; 50l. a year for an annual Academic dinner! The great bequest is for a proposed foundation of almshouses for decayed painters on some land of his at Twickenham; some legal difficulty is expected with regard to this, the question being whether the Statute of Mortmain will interfere with his intentions or not. If it does, the bulk of his property will go to the nearest of kin. Many of the bequests are contingent and depend on the residue after the alms-houses are built and endowed. He has left l000l. for a monument to himself.

‘The bequest of his finished pictures excepted, his will has not given satisfaction; the wisdom even of the alms-houses is questioned by many, the Academic dinner is folly; the old housekeeper’s legacy alone meets with universal approval. More will come out by degrees, but I send you what I have heard so far.

MR. JUSTICE DENMAN 409

‘With best wishes, in which my wife joins, to Miss Rogers and yourself, I remain, my dear Sir, truly yours,

‘C. L. Eastlake.’