LITERARY EVIDENCE ~O~ The discovery of JMW Turner's oil on canvas exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1793 ~O~ LITERARY EVIDENCE

After September 1864, Loss Of 'The 1793 Hotwells Oil'

It has been shown that 'The 1793 Hotwells Oil' appeared, that is - was physically present and observed at Christie's earlier in 1864.

There is a strange anomaly in as much as accounts from Christie's suggest that the picture was not sold at the sale of 9th July whereas the report in the Art Journal shows that the picture, along with its companion, was sold to 'Reynolds'. The identity of 'Reynolds' has not been established.

The companion picture 'Waggoners, Snowdon' was traced further and the evidence for this is reproduced below. It appears that 'Reynolds' disposed of it to Sir William Drake but there is no definitive evidence that Drake also aquired 'The 1793 Hotwells Oil'. Whilst it would seem likely that both pictures were bought by Drake the lack of any sale of 'The 1793 Hotwells Oil' during Drake's lifetime and its absence from the sale following Drake's death render any assumption along these lines pure speculation. It is noted however, that an unidentified 'Rocky Coast Scene' appeared in the latter.

The only statement that can be supported is that the picture itself was lost around September 1864 and the focus of literary comment became a matter of specifying 'Turner's first exhibited oil'

• After September 1864 'The 1793 Hotwells Oil' was lost.

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Footnote *[1]

This first extract from the Drake sale catalogue shows the 'Waggoners, Snowdon' picture here named as 'Snowdon, from Moel Madoc' noted as 'purchased from 'Bishop Nixon of Tasmania'. There is no indication that any other picture in this sale was purchased from Nixon but see the second extract below that highlights other titles that offer possibilities that, following Drake's death, 'The St. Vincent's Rock Oil' may have been misidentified.

Footnote *[2]

This second extract from the Drake sale of 1891 highlights possible misidentified 'rocky coast' pictures. [arrows 2, 5, 6 & 7]. [arrow 1] shows that the catalogue misidentified at least one picture from the collection, [arrow 3] are the Turner watercolours included in the sale.

The most interesting is perhaps [arrow 7] which is completely unidentified.

Footnote *[3]

Sir Walter Armstrong included 'Snowdon: Wagoners - Early Morning' in his catalogue (but not 'The St. Vincent's Rock Oil'). The Drake sale is included and there is a short but explicit description of the picture which bears resemblance to the McCormick image below *[4]

When The Art Journal of 1891 reported the Drake sale it mentioned only one picture by name.

It is clear that 'Waggoners, Snowdon' is by 1902 separated from 'The St. Vincent's Rock Oil'. None of the Turner oils described in Armstrong remotely resemble 'The St. Vincent's Rock Oil'.

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