The Cotman Letters 1804-1833

64
D.Turner Esq
June 21 [or 24th?] 1822. Yarmouth

Dear Sir,
I returned to Yarmouth on Tuesday, but ill from having inadvertantly - on the Thursday before swallowed a bone or pin, though I am inclined to believe it the latter from the horrible flavour of the matter occasionally thrown up, from an ulcer caused by the laceration. I have not been able to take anything but liquids since the accident.
In London I had only been round the different exhibitions to [?] . I saw few artists that I knew. Wilkie's (1) and Mulready's (2) pictures are very fine. the first the most finished effort of human art, ancient or modern. Turner's (3) picture is worthy of nothing but contempt.
I am dear Sir, your obliged & obedient servant
J.S.Cotman.
June 21 [or 24th?] 1822.

(1) Wilkie's The Waterloo Gazette; or The Chelsea Pensioners reading; the Gazette of the Battle of Waterloo was begun (a commision from the Duke of Wellington) in 1817 and finished in 1821. Exhibited at R. A. 1822 - "and made nearly as much stir as Waterloo itself" Dictionary of .National.Biography.
(2) In the R.A. of 1822 Mulready exhibited The Convalescent from Waterloo.
(3) No 138, What you will! was the only picture exhibited by Turner at the R.A. in 1822.