JMW TURNER

Bristol Museum: K816, 'Avon Gorge and Bristol Hotwell'
[References]

BEST PROVENANCE
March 2020

• 1791 Painted during or just after Turner's tour to the Narraways at Bristol or summer 1792 (Wilton page 30; Finberg page 21 line 35)
• 1793 Exhibited at RA exhibition in the Library No. 323 as 'View on the river Avon, near St. Vincent's rock, Bristol' (but mistakenly shown in the RA catalogue as 'The rising squall, hot wells, from St. Vincent's rock, Bristol')
• 1793 First owner: Not determined, possibilities include:
  • Rev. Robert Nixon of Foots Cray, (by purchase from Turner)
  • Dr. Gem (by purchase from Turner) later (1800) bequeathed to William Huskisson. - NOT THIS; August 2020. It is now known that the L Huskisson was not an heir to William H but was the artist Leonard Huskinson (known as Huskisson).
  • August 2020: Other possibilities for first owner are to be investigated but it appears that, if the first owner was Rev. Robert Nixon then this watercolour descended to the first son George, not to the second, Francis Bishop of Tasmania.
• GAP
• 1864 Christie's sale of 27th April as 'View on the river Avon, near St. Vincent's Rock, Bristol'; seller: Huskisson, bought in.
  • August 2020; the seller was almost certainly the artist Leonard Huskinson (known as Huskisson)
• GAP
• THEN Hull
• THEN Mrs.H.S. Fussey, Mrs Hannah Stark Fussey(neé Portas) died 1921 aged 27.
• THEN Rev. J. Patton, Rev. John George Patton (1864-1948), Congregational Minister, Swanland, Yorks 1929-1946.
• 1925 Sold by Rev. J. Patton as 'Hotwells House'; buyer Bristol Museum and Art Gallery'
  • Later: Renamed 'The rising squall, hot wells, from St. Vincent's rock, Bristol'
    Finberg in The Life of JMW Turner pages 22 & 23 published 1939 (our copy is reprint 1961) mentions this mistaken attribution which therefore must have been made before 1939.
  • Later: Renamed 'Avon Gorge and Bristol Hotwell', K816 as a result of Wilton JMW Turner His Art and Life page 302 No.18 published 1979
• 2020 Now potentially identified as 'View on the river Avon, near St. Vincent's Rock, Bristol' (exh RA 1793)
  Requires review by Bristol Museum curators and/or others