BEAUTIFUL SCOTLAND - PRINCELY TURNER
or
A MARRIAGE MADE IN HEAVEN

This inaugural exhibition is dedicated to the National Galleries of Scotland and the Scottish team at this museum

When Turner journeyed to Scotland in 1831 to prepare for his illustrations to the Poems, Scott has been already the toast of Scotland, and indeed the world for some twenty years.  And Turner? He has already earned the splendiferous reputation which impelled Scott's son-in-law to call him that prince of artists. As the results, that is the engraved illustrations show,  this indeed was destined to evolve into a marriage made in heaven.

Perhaps there is no more appropriate document to put this relationship in a better context  than a letter by Robert Cadell, the canny publisher of the new projected  edition of Scott's works. Cadell refers in that letter to the rapturous response evoked by Scott's The Lady of the Lake, read by poet-loving Turner no later than 1811, published in 1810:

The whole country rang with the praises of the poet - crowds set off to view the scenery of Loch Katrine, till then comparatively unknown; and as the book came out just before the season of excursions, every house and inn in the neighborhood was crammed with a constant succession of visitors...the author's succeeding works keeping up the enthusiasm for our scenery which he had originally created.

Much praise has been heaped upon Turner's princely illustrations, their surpassing beauty, their romantic passion and their uttermost harmony with the spirit of Scotland.  In 1831 all that was in the future. What sealed the marriage made in heaven was the down-to-earth prophetic assessment made by marriage broker Cadell:

With Turner...I will insure the sale of   8,000 for the Poetry - without, not 3,000.

Turner's in-to-day's-dollars fee of some 10,000 per illustration turned out to be a canny investment.