JMW Turner's Two 'St Vincent's Rock' Exhibits of 1793
Chapter II: The rising squall, hot wells, from St. Vincent's rock, and
'View on the river Avon, near St. Vincent's rock, Bristol': A mistake in the 1793 catalogue by transposition of titles

'The rising squall, hot wells, from St. Vincent's rock, Bristol', and
'View on the river Avon, near St. Vincent's rock, Bristol'
Paintings by JMW Turner; exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1793

A mistake in the 1793 catalogue by transposition of titles

1. JMW Turner's 1793 exhibits

JMW Turner exhibited three titles in 1793: (see: Graves 'Contributors' vol. 8, page 33)

• 'View on the river Avon, near St. Vincent's rock, Bristol'
• 'Gate of St. Augustine's monastery, Canterbury'
• 'The rising squall, hot wells, from St. Vincent's rock, Bristol'

In Chapter I it was shown that 'The rising squall, hot wells, from St. Vincent's rock, Bristol' is an oil on canvas. 'Gate of St. Augustine's monastery, Canterbury' is a watercolour-drawing (prob. Yale B1975.4.1964); and Peter Cunningham mentioned 'View on the river Avon, near St. Vincent's rock, Bristol' amongst watercolour-drawings. The exhibits therefore comprised one oil and two watercolour-drawings.

2. Locations of the 'St Vincent's Rock' titles stated in the catalogue
are inconsistent with their substrates and media

• In Catalogue Pages We see that the catalogue shows 'View on the river Avon, near St. Vincent's rock, Bristol' in the Anti-Room and it shows 'Gate of St. Augustine's monastery, Canterbury' and 'The rising squall, hot wells, from St. Vincent's rock, Bristol' in the Library.
• In Royal Academy Exhibition 1793 We see that oils were hung in the Anti-Room and that JMW Turner exhibited an oil in the Anti-Room. We see that watercolour-drawings were hung in the Library and that JMW Turner exhibited two watercolour drawings.

It is possible that Turner's oil was hung in the Library; there are pastils and oils there. What is less likely is that his watercolour was hung in the Anti-Room; evidence in the Anderdon papers RA/AND/8/196-198 shows the pastils and no other commentary as to media, evidence from tracing the other pictures (whilst ongoing) shows oils, evidence of the Rochester canvas together with the timing of the first oils suggests that there were only four.

However, the oil was 'The rising squall, hot wells, from St. Vincent's rock, Bristol' ('View on the river Avon, near St. Vincent's rock, Bristol' was a watercolour-drawing and must have been hung in the Library)

3. The two 'St. Vincent's Rock' titles were transposed

The two titles have been transposed in the catalogue. The catalogue entries should have been:

• Anti-Room
  • 263. 'The rising squall, hot wells, from St. Vincent's rock, Bristol'
• Library
  • 316. 'Gate of St. Augustine's monastery, Canterbury'
  • 323. 'View on the river Avon, near St. Vincent's rock, Bristol'

4. Observers at the 1793 exhibition

References in Chapter I make it clear that the oil was 'The rising squall, hot wells, from St. Vincent's rock, Bristol' and those that commented on the oil knew it by this title (or something close). Observers at the exhibition must have known that the the picture that they saw in the Anti-Room was 'The rising squall, hot wells, from St. Vincent's rock, Bristol'. A contemporaneous newspaper cutting shows that there were inaccuracies in the numbering.

It should be mentioned that it is doubtful whether many people noticed or cared about this catalogue mistake. JMW Turner was a minor artist just 18 years old and with very few previous exhibits. His picture was overshadowed by the much larger No. 264 'Portrait Of An Eminent Botanist' (Portrait of Sir James Edward Smith), oil on canvas (62”x 52”including frame) by John Rising (1753-1817) hanging above it and now with the Linnean Society.

It is doubtful whether many critics even bothered to look at JMW Turner's exhibit; Cunningham refers to 'the wiser few'. Press cuttings (Royal Academy CRI/1/212, 213, 214, 217, 219 & 22, and AND/8/251) have been examined and there are few comments about Anti-Room exhibits. CRI/1/214 and 217 contain observations about mistakes in 'numbering' suggesting additional support for the title transposition.

5. How could this transposition error happen?
It is not possible to say how this mistake (or those mentioned in 4. above) happened but we offer some suggestions.

• Turner gave the titles in the wrong order
• The two titles were very similar
• Lists provided for the typesetter were wrong
• Academy staff looking at the oil could easily mistake the title as a view on the river Avon because 'hot wells' and 'St. Vincent's Rock' were both well known to be on the river Avon. The hot wells were famous and many artists painted scenes of the area.
• The entries are on consecutive pages of the catalogue; we cannot be sure of how the signatures were compiled but investigation of this aspect is ongoing.
• The compositor's mistake was not noticed due to the similarity of the reversed typefaces:
  • 
  Note how the reversed 'Vincent's Rock' dominates the images (click the images to see them full size but note that the compositor would see grey metal blocks with less contrast)