Joseph Mallord William Turner, R.A.

Acquired directly from the artist in 1793 by the Rev. Robert Nixon (1759–1837), of Foots Cray, Kent;

By descent to his son, the Rev. Dr Francis Russell Nixon, Lord Bishop of Tasmania (1803–1879);

Acquired by Joseph Hogarth (1801–1879), circa 1862–64; 

By whom offered, London, Christie’s, 9 July 1864, lot 152, unsold;

Private collection, Northamptonshire;

Thence by descent until anonymously sold, Newbury, Dreweatts, 4 April 2024, lot 23 (as follower of Julius Caesar Ibbetson);

Where acquired by the current owner in 2024.  

‘Obituary notice: J.M.W. Turner R.A’, in The Athenaeum, 27 December 1851, p. 1382;

‘Obituary. Mr J.M.W. Turner R.A.’, in The Art Journal, 1852, p. 46 (‘in 1793, he exhibited his first oil picture’);

P. Cunningham, Turner and his Works, London 1852, p. 17;

T. Miller, Turner and Girtin’s picturesque views. Sixty Years Since, London 1854, p. 27 (incorrectly identifying the view as Rochester Castle);

‘British Artists: Their style and character’, in The Art Journal, October 1856, p. 298 (documenting the exhibition of Turner’s first oil painting in 1793);

W. Thornbury, The Life of J.M.W. Turner, 2 vols, London 1862, vol. I, pp. 77 and 155; London 1877, pp. 45 and 96 (incorrectly identifying the subject as Rochester Castle);

The Art Journal, September 1864, p. 267 (listing the picture among the works offered at Christie’s from the collection of Dr Nixon);

R. and S. Redgrave, A century of painters of the English School, 2 vols, London 1866, vol. II, p. 96 (misidentified as a watercolour);

T. Miller, Turner and Girtin’s picturesque views of English, Scotch, & Welsh scenery: a hundred years ago, London 1873, p. 26 (incorrectly identifying the subject as Rochester Castle);

S. Redgrave, A Dictionary of Artists of the English School, London 1878, p. 437 (correctly identifying the painting’s title and medium);

W.C. Monkhouse, J. M. W. Turner, London 1889, p. 34;

G.R. Redgrave, A history of water-colour painting in England, London 1892, p. 58;

C.F. Bell, A list of the works contributed to public exhibitions by J.M.W. Turner, R.A., London 1901, pp. 27 and 71 (misidentifying the painting as a watercolour);

W. Armstrong, Turner, London and New York 1902, p. 29 (referring to the 1793 exhibition: ‘one of which, a Bristol view, may possibly have been in oil’);

J. Gage, Colour in Turner: Poetry and Truth, New York 1969, p. 229 n. 53 (incorrectly identifying the subject as Rochester Castle);

A. Wilton, The Life and Work of J.M.W. Turner, London 1979, p. 302, no. 18 (described as a watercolour and with the provenance and other details conflated with those of a watercolour in the City Museum and Art Gallery, Bristol);

M. Butlin and E. Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, 2 vols, New Haven and London 1977, p. 18, under no. 21 (where the subject is mistaken for Rochester Castle);

A. Wilton, Turner in his time, London 1987, p. 46 (referring to the picture’s exhibition in 1793 but misdescribing it as a watercolour);

A. Wilton, ‘Turner’s First Exhibited Oil: The Rising Squall, Hot Wells, from St Vincent’s Rock, Bristol’, in Turner Society News, no. 143, Spring 2025, pp. 3–5, reproduced in colour fig. 1 and on the front cover.  

London, Royal Academy, 29 April – 8 June 1793, no. 323;

Hobart, Tasmania, Legislature Council Chambers, Hobart Town Exhibition, 6 January – 15 February 1845, no. 33;

Hobart, Tasmania, Runnymede House, Art Treasures, 1858, no. 133;

This painting has been requested for inclusion in the forthcoming landmark exhibition Turner and Constable at Tate Britain, London, the definitive exhibition of two pivotal British artists in the 250^th year of their births, 27 November 2025 – 12 April 2026.