A painting by JMW Turner that was shown by the artist at the Royal Academy in April 1793 but subsequently disappeared from public view for 150 years, has sold at Sotheby’s London for $3.08m. But that’s not the main story.
In April last year, the oil on canvas – which depicted a dramatic view of a former hot spring and spa in Bristol and was painted by Turner when he was just 17 – was offered at a regional UK auction house with an estimate of $1200-1600 and a catalogue entry that suggested it was by a follower of Julius Caesar Ibbetson (1759-1817). It sold under estimate, at $820. When the new buyer had the yellowing varnish cleaned from the surface, a signature was revealed and the painting was subsequently unanimously endorsed as a Turner by scholars of the painter.
And there’s an Australian connection: The painting made its debut at the Royal Academy in 1793 before being bought by Reverend Robert Nixon, a customer of Turner’s father’s barber shop. Reverend Nixon’s son inherited the painting after his death but it then fell into obscurity, having last been exhibited in Tasmania in 1858. Although there was early mention of the painting’s existence in obituaries of Turner’s life, for at least a century it was mistaken for a watercolour and was missing from the catalogue of his exhibited oil paintings.
