Depiction of a stormy Bristol landscape to be sold after artist’s signature was found when it was cleaned
An oil painting of a stormy Bristol landscape has been rediscovered as one of the earliest works of JMW Turner, created when the artist was 17 years old and lost to his canon for the past 150 years.
Turner’s signature on The Rising Squall, Hot Wells, from St Vincent’s Rock, Bristol was discovered in the process of cleaning the painting after it was sold last year.
At the time of the sale, the work was attributed to a “follower of Julius Caesar Ibbetson”, an 18th-century artist. Dreweatts, the auctioneers, had suggested the work would fetch £600-800, although the buyer is believed to have paid less.
Now, in a year of exhibitions and events to mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of the man widely considered to be Britain’s greatest and most influential artist, the painting is to be sold again. This time it will be auctioned by Sotheby’s with an estimated value of £200,000-300,000.
