J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

This vignette, Datur hora quieti, serves as the cul-de-lampe, or final tail-piece, to the entire volume of the 1834 edition of Rogers’s Poems.1 It was engraved by Edward Goodall and it is the only illustration in Poems to be printed with a title, although it does not directly reflect a specific poem.2 The Latin phrase ‘Datur hora quieti’ translates as ‘An hour given to quiet’ and therefore acts as an appropriate conclusion to the publication. Furthermore, it may be a reference to a poem of the same title by the famous Scottish author, Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832).3 Scott’s verses begin with a description of a sun setting over a lake and it may have been this which set the context for Turner’s scene of a rural summer evening:

Adele Holcomb has also suggested that the textual basis for the vignette can be found in lines from Rogers’s ‘Human Life’ in Poems:4

These verses in turn recall the pastoral themes found in the poetry of James Thomson (1700–48), particularly the celebration of the plough in ‘Spring’ from The Seasons.5 Turner greatly admired Thomson and frequently used quotations from his poetry to accompany his oil paintings. Furthermore, his own attempts at writing verse are heavily influenced by the Scottish writer’s work.

Generally, however, Datur Hora Quieti is a generalised view that is meant to complement the overall tone and content of Rogers’s poetry rather than adhere to a specific line of text. In a similar manner to another illustration, A Garden, which serves as the frontispiece to Poems (see Tate D27679; Turner Bequest CCLXXX 162), Turner’s tranquil imaginary landscape echoes Rogers call for his reader to leave the bustling world to enter instead the realm of art and poetry. The illustration pays homage to one of Turner’s artistic models, Claude Lorrain and the classical landscape tradition. The meandering river and undulating hills, as well as details such as the arched bridge, the distant ruins, and the use of trees as framing devices, all refer to established conventions of Western landscape painting. In the foreground, Turner has included signs of agrarian life, including several cattle and a plough.

In the engraved version of the scene, Edward Goodall reproduced the subtle atmospheric and light effects of the original illustration with astonishing skill. It was masterful and sensitive translation such as this which led Ruskin to describe the illustrations in Rogers’s Poems as ‘the loveliest engravings ever produced by pure line’.6

Turner produced one preliminary study for this subject (see Tate D27607; Turner Bequest CCLXX 90).

Technical notes:
Watermark: ‘CA snell’ (?) [partially cut off and difficult to read]

Verso:

Inscribed by unknown hands in pencil ‘34’ top centre and ‘29 a’ centre right and ‘CCLXXX.199’ bottom centre. Also in red ink ‘1046’ bottom left
Stamped in black ‘CCLXXX 199’ centre left