JMW Turner's Two 'St. Vincent's Rock' Exhibits of 1793
Chapter IV: Loss and Misidentification of 'The Rising Squall' and 'View on the River Avon: Identity of the Two 1793 'St. Vincent's Rock' Titles

Loss and Misidentification of 'The Rising Squall' and 'View on the River Avon
How mistakes obliterated the identity of 'The Rising Squall'

Identity of the Two 1793 'St. Vincent's Rock' Titles

5. Early 1900's

We see from items 1 to 4 that by the early 1900's the identity of 'The Rising Squall' had been lost.

• 'View on the river Avon, near St. Vincent's Rock, Bristol' was correctly identified as a watercolour-drawing but was believed to have been hung in the Anti-Room.
• 'The rising squall, hot wells, from St. Vincent's rock, Bristol' took on a new identity as a watercolour as C.F.Bell's mistaken analysis became the prevailing view.
• The physical location of both titles became unknown.

In 1902 Thos. Agnew & Sons published Sir Walter Armstrong's, 'Turner'
Armstrong's book included a list of JMW Turner's works. His list does not include either of the two 'St. Vincent's Rock' titles discussed here. If 'View on the Avon' was hidden away on a farm in Lincolnshire* then it is not surprising that Armstrong did not know where it was. 'The Rising Squall' had lost its identity as an oil and 'Bristol' appears only in Armstrong's list of Turner's watercolour-drawings. There are five 'Bristol' watercolours listed on page 244:

• The first two are river Avon titles which are too small to be RA exhibits.
• Third in the list is 'Bristol: Old Hotwells House'. This watercolour-drawing is significant in our study; its provenance can be traced directly from JMW Turner to its present location at the Courtauld Institute and at no time was it exhibited at a Royal Academy exhibition.
• The fourth and fifth are not river Avon titles.

In 1905 Wyllie's 'JMW Turner' was published and in 1910 Finberg's 'Turner's Sketches and Drawings' was published in London and New York
Whilst Wyllie perceives that there 'must have been some mistake', his account, copied blindly from C.F.Bell, adds to the confusion
Finberg's 'Turner's Sketches and Drawings' makes no mention of a 1793 oil. However, much of his information is based on Wyllie and therefore, in respect of the existence of a 1793 oil, on the erroneous conclusions of CF Bell. These publications during the early 1900's demonstrate a gradual moving away from Cunningham's concept of 'a picture of the following year - 1793' and instead just include a very broad outline of Turner's life before 1794.

Around 1900 to 1910

• 'View on the river Avon, near St. Vincent's rock, Bristol' had completely lost its identity but it was thought that the 1793 exhibit was a watercolour-drawing. (Its whereabouts around 1910 was unknown)
• 'The rising squall, hot wells, from St. Vincent's rock, Bristol' was thought to be a lost watercolour, exhibited 1793 but so obscure that it went unrecognised by Armstrong..

This chapter now moves on to discuss the 'Bristol Watercolour' which may be 'View on the river Avon, near St. Vincent's rock, Bristol' but this is not absolutely certain.

*At the time of writing (March 2022):

'View on the river Avon, near St. Vincent's Rock, Bristol'
We do not have quite enough evidence to support the line of succession which is emerging but it appears that the 'Bristol Watercolour' is 'View on the river Avon, near St. Vincent's Rock, Bristol'. So at present we are looking for evidence of ownership at some critical stages.
The Bristol Watercolour was owned at this time by Miss Hannah Stark Portas, living near East Halton in Lincolnshire. (She married Arthur Robert Fussey in 1918 to become 'Mrs H.S.Fussey' and she died in 1921 aged 27)

'The rising squall, hot wells, from St. Vincent's rock, Bristol'
The evidence in the Introduction to this presentation shows that we have found this picture. Ownership from 1793 to 1864 is documented. It was in the possession of Joseph Hogarth on 9th July 1864 and no further evidence of its ownership by any other individual has emerged despite following up many possible lines of succession. It is most likely that Hogarth died with 'The Rising Squall' in his possession possibly put away or hidden at his private house, Paxton House, West Drayton.