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 a subject which fascinated Turner

Compositionally, there are similarities to Turner's work.

• B&J 540 (albeit off Scarborough, not 'from St. Vincent' Rock) has a similar description.
• Watercolours from the same time deal with the same subject.*[1]

The fact that Turner actually named his picture 'The rising squall, hot wells, from St. Vincent's rock, Bristol' shows that he had already taken an interest in painting this type of composition and there are two additional recorded works which also demonstrate him working with this subject around 1792:

• Lost oil: 'Rochester Castle with Fishermen Drawing Boats Ashore In A Gale of Wind' finished at Foots Cray and 'given' to Rev. Nixon implies a similar subject.
• Lost oil: 'Seapiece, with Fishing Boats off a Wooden Pier, a Gale coming on', a similar subject very likely before the 1793 RA Exhibition. (B&J cat. No. 540 mentioned above)

Later Turner became very interested in stormy seapieces but here comparisons are only relevant for works up to and including 1793 - not beyond

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Footnotes

*[1] Watercolours and Sketches before 1793 showing similar composition.

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