BACKGROUND ~O~ The discovery of JMW Turner's oil on canvas exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1793 ~O~ BACKGROUND

Background 3 - Size

Size matters. Turner's work indicates that he used small sizes for 'reference' and larger sizes for commissions and exhibition.

Generally the size of an exhibited picture would reflect its importance.

Sandby's drawing of the Great Room in 1792 indicates the range of sizes that were exhibited *[1].
A new artist would no doubt try to 'fit in' at the smaller end of the spectrum.

One of the rules applied to exhibits at RA Exhibitions was that they were presented in gilt frames. (Solkin - 'Art On The Line').

Gilt frames were expensive and therefore a limiting factor to young artists like Turner.
In 1792 Turner exhibited two watercolours, '436, Malmsbury Abbey' approx 21" x 15" and 472, The Pantheon, The Morning After The Fire approx 15" x 20".
In 1792 he did not exhibit his watercolour 'View on the river Avon, near St. Vincent's rock, Bristol' so either it was not finished or it can be assumed that he had only two frames.

The 1793 candidate picture, 15" x 20" without frame, would fit into Turner's 1792 frames.

This size (23" x 28" with a 4" frame) also fits the estimated exhibition space being not too big and not too small.
Smaller pictures can, of course, be fitted with oversize frames but given the prestige associated with the Royal Academy Exhibitions this seems unlikely.
Three exhibits this year (1793) indicates the aquisition of another frame. With increasing income frame purchase became less of an issue.

Footnotes

*[1]Sandby's 1792 drawing of the Great Room shows the range of sizes that were exhibited. These were oils. There is no record of watercolour sizes.

sandby
'Back View of the Hot Wells, Bristol' D00389 on the same scale:
'The Pantheon, the morning after the fire' on the same scale:

Scale: 1 pixel represents 15mm

Footnotes*[2]The Sizes of Turners Work Leading Up to the 1793 RA Exibition

Some sizes (of lost pictures) are estimates.

Works displayed exclude studies made at the Royal Academy because it is likely that directions regarding size were specified by a tutor.

This footnote is under construction and will be added as soon as possible