JMW Turner's Two 'St Vincent's Rock' Exhibits of 1793
Chapter I: The rising squall, hot wells, from St. Vincent's rock, Bristol: Evidence that it is an oil exhibited in 1793

'The rising squall, hot wells, from St. Vincent's rock, Bristol'
A painting by JMW Turner; exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1793

Evidence that it is an oil exhibited in 1793

1. Modern 'belief' that it is a watercolour is wrong

If you are familiar with this period of JMW Turner's work you will be aware that in modern times this picture has been designated a watercolour or, more technically, a watercolour-drawing.

This view or 'belief' is wrong and arises out of two historical mistakes:

• one, a minor typsetting error in the 1793 catalogue
• the other, an unbelieveably silly mistake by C.F.Bell in his 'A List of the Works Contributed to Public Exhibitions by J.M.W. Turner RA' published in 1901.

2. Mistakes were discovered by study of relevant literature

These historical mistakes were discovered during our study of literature commonly cited as evidence in the provenance of Turner's work and are discussed in later chapters

Statements in respect of the 1793 exhibits in the literature broadly fall into one or other of two categories:

• Direct statements as to whether 'The Rising Squall' was an oil or a watercolour-drawing, and
• Statements refering to the title and date of Turner's first exhibited oil

The following pages show that 'The rising squall, hot wells, from St. Vincent's rock, Bristol' was an oil exhibited in 1793. See Study Notes for general comments as to the nature and viability of the literary references.