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

Study of 'The St. Vincent's Rock Oil'
It is The Right Size

At 15" x 20" approx without a frame, with a 4" frame it would require a hanging space of around 23" x 28". This fits the calculated layout of the Anti-Room in 1793 on the West Wall with the John Rising Portrait of Sir James Edward Smith (Linnean Society 62" x 52" with frame). It would fit below or above the large Rising work; in 1792 on the West Wall the small pictures were hung below the large pictures so on the diagrams (Page Ref. 10_05) the same layout is adopted.

Its size (15" x 20") is close to the Indianapolis self portrait. The latter has been overpainted or possibly entirely repainted but comparison of its size is nevertheless appropriate and relevant. Furthermore based on the 'purchase of a yard of canvas at Rochester' theory (and there is solid evidence for the purchase of an unspecified amount of canvas) that canvas would yield four pictures of this size.

The prevoius year, 1792, Turner exhibited his 'Pantheon' watercolour of approximately the same size.

In 1793 he also exhibited a watercolour which it is probably the 'Bristol Watercolour' and if so that watercolour was about the same size (possibly now trimmed - Page Ref: 09_20)

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