JWM TURNER The first American to buy a Turner painting was James Lenox of New York City, a private collector. Lenox wished to own a Turner and in 1845 bought one unseen through an intermediary, his friend C. R. Leslie. From among the paintings Turner had on hand and was willing to sell for £500, Leslie selected and shipped the 1832 atmospheric seascape Staffa, Fingal's Cave.[34] Worried about the painting's reception by Lenox, who knew Turner's work only through etchings, Leslie wrote to Lenox that the quality of Staffa, "a most poetic picture of a steam boat" would become apparent in time. On receiving the painting Lenox was baffled, and "greatly disappointed" by what he called the painting's "indistinctness". When Leslie was forced to relay this opinion to Turner, Turner said "You should tell Mr Lenox that indistinctness is my forte."