Record

The Rising Squall, Hot Wells, from St Vincent's Rock, Bristol

Joseph Mallord William Turner · 1775-1851 · c. 1792

Image pendingReproduced in full. Work is in the public domain; source and holding institution credited.

View at the holding institution

Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner
Date: c. 1792
Medium: Oil on canvas
Attribution: accepted
Reattributed to Turner after cleaning revealed the signature. Previously sold under a mistaken attribution; the buyer had suspected Philip James de Loutherbourg.
Where it is now: Private collection, United Kingdom
as recorded 2026-08-02

Turner's earliest exhibited oil painting, made when he was seventeen, unrecognised for about a hundred and fifty years, and sold twice within roughly a year at prices that differ by a factor of nearly four thousand.

In 2024 it went through a saleroom for five hundred pounds under a mistaken attribution; the buyer had suspected Philip James de Loutherbourg. Cleaning revealed Turner's signature. On 2 July 2025 the same picture made 1.9 million pounds at Sotheby's London against a high estimate of three hundred thousand, with four bidders competing.

The part usually left out is the ending. Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, in the city where the seventeen-year-old Turner painted it, launched an urgent public appeal to raise a hundred thousand pounds and buy the work for the city. The appeal did not succeed; the painting went to a private collector in the United Kingdom.

Provenance

1793 -
Exhibited by the artistdocumented
Turner's first oil painting to be publicly exhibited.¹²
- 2024
Unknownunknown
The painting was unrecognised for roughly 150 years. No documented owners for this span in public reporting.¹³
2024 - 2025
Private buyerdocumented
Bought at auction for GBP 500 under a mistaken attribution. Cleaning revealed the Turner signature.¹³
2025 - present
Private collection, United Kingdomdocumented
Bought at Sotheby's London, 2 July 2025, after a public appeal by Bristol Museum and Art Gallery failed to secure the work for the city.¹⁴

Prices realised

Date	Sale	Result	Note
2024	not named in reporting	GBP 500	Sold under a mistaken attribution, reported in dollars as about USD 506.
2025-07-02	Sotheby's Old Master and 19th Century Paintings Evening Auction, London		More than six times the high estimate; four bidders.

Exhibited

1793 First public exhibition of a Turner oil not specified in reporting

Sources

1Artnet News, 'Rediscovered Turner Masterpiece Crushes Estimates With $2.6 Million Sale'.
https://news.artnet.com/market/turner-rediscovered-masterpiece-auction-2653461
2Sotheby's lot record, 'The Rising Squall, Hot Wells, from St Vincent's Rock', London 2025.
https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2025/old-master-and-19th-century-paintings-evening-auction-l25033/the-rising-squall-hot-wells-from-st-vincents-rock
3Country Life, on the picture's 2024 sale under a mistaken attribution.
https://www.countrylife.co.uk/luxury/art-and-antiques/the-obscure-painting-that-turned-out-to-be-a-turner-set-to-sell-for-500-times-what-it-made-at-auction-a-year-ago
4Museums Association, 'Bristol Museum launches urgent fundraiser to acquire Turner artwork'.
https://www.museumsassociation.org/museums-journal/news/2025/06/bristol-museum-launches-urgent-fundraiser-to-acquire-turner-artwork/

Last verified: 2026-08-02Record created: 2026-08-02Cite: Iconotheca, "The Rising Squall, Hot Wells, from St Vincent's Rock, Bristol", iconotheca.com

Change log

2026-08-02 — Record created. Exhibition year 1793 taken from reporting that the work is Turner's first exhibited oil; to be confirmed against the Royal Academy exhibition record.