Turner's mother's frustration and a memorable brush with Bacon | Letters

"These contrasted with the comfortable Islington home in which she grew up and with the even more prosperous circumstances of her relations. I have discussed those in the Genealogists' Magazine, the British Art Journal and now in my publication for Turner 250: Happy Birthdays! JMW Turner and Prince George on Richmond Hill. Since I wrote the last, a plaque was erected on the site of the house of the uncle of Turner in Brentford, where he was sent to escape the bedlam at home and where, like Beethoven at a similar age at Bonn, he acquired lifelong cultured friends."

"Regarding artistic rivalries, including that between JMW Turner and John Constable (28 November), in 1969 I met Francis Bacon at a health hydro in Surrey. He claimed to have been sent by his agent to dry out. His unaffected friendliness overcame my awe at encountering the great painter. In my first Mini, I drove him to see the Turners at Petworth House, where there happened to be a William Blake exhibition as well. He was dismissive of Blake as an artist, preferring the poetry. But the surprise was his little concern for the Petworth Turners, which he hadn't seen before. I prefer Constable, he said."

Mary Turner’s possible mental illness was likely exacerbated by poverty and cramped lodging in Covent Garden and by her husband’s lack of ambition. Her childhood in comfortable Islington and the prosperity of her relatives contrasted sharply with her later circumstances. A plaque marks the Brentford house of Turner’s uncle, where Turner was sent to escape household turmoil and where he formed cultured lifelong friendships. Francis Bacon recalled preferring Constable, dismissing William Blake’s visual art while admiring his poetry, and showing little concern for the Turners at Petworth.

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