JMW Turner's Two 'St Vincent's Rock' Exhibits of 1793
Chapter III: The rising squall, hot wells, from St. Vincent's rock, Bristol: The Redgrave Sequence

'The rising squall, hot wells, from St. Vincent's rock, Bristol'
One of the two 'St. Vincent's Rock' paintings by JMW Turner; exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1793

The Redgrave Sequence

Central to the question as to whether 'The Rising Squall' is an oil on Canvas is a sequence of five publications by Richard, Samuel (Richard's brother) and Gilbert Redgrave (Richard's son).The first two are the original publications and these are followed by two reprints. This 'Redgrave Sequence' ends with a work by Gilbert Redgrave (which was also reprinted but this reprint does not impact on the sequence).

1. The Two Original Publications:

1a. Conclusions of 1866 and 1874 Publications
The first two of the five publications in the sequence were first editions of 'A Century of Painters' in 1866 and 'A Dictionary of Artists' in 1874:

• 1866 Richard (1804-1888) and Samuel (1802-1876) (writing 'A Century of Painters') examine the catalogues and conclude that Turner's first exhibited oil is 'Moonlight'. However, even under their own terms of reference this conclusion is unsubstantiated.
• 1874 During the eight years since publication of 'A Century of Painters' Samuel discovered that Turner's first exhibited oil was 'The Rising Squall' in 1793 and that his second was 'Fishermen at Sea' in 1796. This information was published in 'A Dictionary of Artists'.

1b. Estimate of the Timing and Sources of Information
Publications such as these can take several years to compile. It is clear that the Redgraves consulted the RA Exhibition catalogues [Vol. I page 380 line 3]. Other sources were also available and our List of Sources shows where the Redrave Publications fit in by reference to publication dates:

• For 'A Century of Painters' JMW Turner information could have been gathered in 1863
  'A Century of Painters', printed and published in 1866 was almost certainly completed by the end of 1865. It is in two volumes; there are 543 pages in volume I and 643 in volume II. This could represent two years, or more, of information gathering.
  Two years before completion, 1863, the most recent and up to date source on JMW Turner was Thornbury (published 1862).
• For 'A Dictionary of Artists' information may have been compiled around 1870
  'A Dictionary of Artists' was published in 1874. This is the work of Samuel Redgrave alone and is a single volume of 473 pages. The compilation time is likely to be longer because there was only a single author and the entries are more concise, better organized and clearly specifically researched. Samuel discovered that Turner's first exhibited oil was 'The Rising Squall' in 1793 and that his second was 'Fishermen at Sea' in 1796. It is important to note that by reference to the RA Exhibition catalogue of 1793 Samuel could not have concluded that 'The Rising Squall' was an oil because as we saw in Chapter II the entries for this exhibit and 'View on the Avon' were transposed.
  If Samuel gathered his material in 1870 he would have access to 'The Art Journal 1864' and maybe also the Christie's sale catalogue for 9th July 1864. Additionally the return of the Bishop of Tasmania and his art collection in 1862 was newsworthy and could have been a source of information for Samuel.
  These sources alone would be sufficient for Samuel to conclude that 'The Rising Squall' was the oil exhibit of 1793 but there is also a possibility that he attended auctions and may have actually seen the picture.