January 2021

Turner Bequest Display Works of 1787 to 1789; before the first RA Exhibit in 1790

1. Background and Scope

Whilst preparing comparative information regarding the context in which 'The rising squall, hot wells, from St. Vincent's rock, Bristol' was painted and exhibited it was noted that the first RA exhibit, 'View Of The Archbishop's Palace, Lambeth', said to be the watercolour-drawing now in the Indianapolis Museum of Art (accession reference: 72.166) is:

Apparently unsigned.
Inconsistent with JMW Turner's title 'View Of The Archbishop's Palace, Lambeth' because, whilst undoubtedly the palace is in the background, this painting is primarily one of another building.
Rather small, being only 10½"x 15"; one half the size of 'Malmesbury Abbey' (1792, 21¼"x 15")

In addition to the points mentioned above it is found that this painting has no published provenance.

The purpose of this study is to compare earlier works that were clearly 'finished' works intended for display which lead to and justifies the statement:

"We question whether Turner would have submitted a smaller, unsigned, work as his first exhibit, an important event for him."

No attempt is made to actually answer the question as to whether or not the Indianapolis painting is the 1790 exhibit. Both Armstrong and C.F.Bell describe this painting as the first exhibit with Armstrong claiming provenance (of this painting) dating back to the Narraway family. Whilst Armstrong's provenance may well be correct for this painting his assessment of it as 'Turner's' first exhibit is not necessarily accurate; on page 270, for example, Armstrong claims that the exhibited 'The Pantheon, the morning after the fire' was 11¾"x 9¾" which is now known to be entirely mistaken. It must also be said that comparisons here are based only on works in the Turner Bequest. There may be other works in private hands that would be more supportive of the Indianapolis painting being the first exhibit.

Full analysis of each individual work (including information as to the work from which they were copied - as most were) is provided on the Tate Research pages together with cross references. Those pages do not, however, provide the comparative detail that we provide here:

Relative Sizes, by displaying images at a scale of one pixel representing 5mm which enables them to be seen on screen together at the same time.
Signature Details, which suggest that JMW Turner signed the larger 'finished' works (albeit that they were copies of other artists' work). If he signed 'copies' is it reasonable to suppose that he would leave his own original work unsigned?

2. Images:

Known, signed, 1792 exhibits ('The Pantheon, and 'Malmesbury Abbey') for comparison
The 1790 Watercolour; said to be the 1790 exhibit
earlier works in order of date descending
showing relative sizes and signing, (sd=signed; us=unsigned)

1792 ......................

1790 ...........................View Of The Archbishop's Palace, Lambeth (apparently unsigned)

1790 D00115(sd).............D00187(us)

1789 D00049(sd)... D00046(sd)........D00048(us)

1788 D00047(us)

1787 D00002(sd).......D00001(sd)...........D00003(us)