# The Rising Squall, Hot Wells, from St Vincent's Rock, Bristol > Joseph Mallord William Turner - c. 1792 > Canonical HTML: https://iconotheca.com/artworks/jmw-turner/turner-the-rising-squall-hot-wells-bristol/ > Published by Servola Systems GmbH. Last verified: 2026-09-14 ## Tombstone - **Artist:** Joseph Mallord William Turner - **Date:** c. 1792 - **Medium:** Oil on canvas - **Object type:** Painting - **Period:** Romanticism, 1780-1850 - **Current location:** Private collection, United Kingdom - **Attribution:** accepted ## Summary Turner's first oil painting to be publicly exhibited, shown at the Royal Academy in 1793 as number 323 when he was seventeen, and then lost for a hundred and sixty years because the standard reference work filed it in the wrong medium. It is the only oil painting Turner is believed to have made of a Bristol subject.On 4 April 2024 it sold at Dreweatts in Newbury as lot 23, catalogued as a follower of Julius Caesar Ibbetson and titled House by the Water in a Stormy Sky, for a total of GBP 524.80 including fees. The buyer suspected Philip James de Loutherbourg. Cleaning uncovered the signature W Turner at the lower left. On 2 July 2025 the same canvas was lot 28 at Sotheby's in London: GBP 1.5 m under the hammer, about GBP 1.9 m with premium, against an estimate of GBP 200,000 to 300,000.Bristol tried to buy it back. More than 1,700 people gave GBP 109,120 in a week, past a GBP 100,000 target. It was not close to enough. The picture went to a private United Kingdom collector, the donations were refunded, and the work was seen again at Tate Britain that November. ## Provenance Every link carries a grade. `documented` means a cited source supports it, `disputed` means the identification is argued but not established, `unknown` means we have no owner for that span and have not bridged it. - **1793-1837** The Rev. Robert Nixon (1759-1837), of Foots Cray, Kent `[documented]` (purchase) Acquired directly from the artist in 1793, the year of the Royal Academy exhibition. Nixon was an early patron and friend of Turner. - **1837-c. 1862-64** The Rev. Dr Francis Russell Nixon (1803-1879), Lord Bishop of Tasmania `[documented]` (inheritance) By descent from his father. He took the picture to Tasmania on his appointment as the first Lord Bishop, and it was exhibited in Hobart in 1845 and again in 1858. - **c. 1862-64-after 1864** Joseph Hogarth (1801-1879) `[documented]` (purchase) Acquired around 1862 to 1864. Offered by him at Christie's, London, 9 July 1864, lot 152, where it failed to sell. This is the last recorded public appearance before 2024. - **after 1864-2024** Private collection, Northamptonshire, thence by descent `[unknown]` (gap) Sotheby's records the family only as a private collection in Northamptonshire, with no name, no acquisition date and no route from Hogarth. Roughly 160 years are undocumented. The picture was consigned anonymously out of this collection in 2024. - **2024-2025** Private buyer, unnamed `[documented]` (purchase) Bought at Dreweatts, Donnington Priory, Newbury, 4 April 2024, lot 23, catalogued as follower of Julius Caesar Ibbetson and titled House by the Water in a Stormy Sky. The buyer suspected Philip James de Loutherbourg and had the picture cleaned, uncovering the signature W Turner at the lower left. - **2025-present** Private collection, United Kingdom `[documented]` (purchase) Bought at Sotheby's, London, 2 July 2025, sale L25033, lot 28. The buyer is described only as a private United Kingdom collector and has not been named. Because the sale was domestic, no export licence application arose and no national treasure deferral was triggered. The sale and lot are independently corroborated by the Wikimedia Commons file record for the reproduction. - **2025-2026** On loan, lender unnamed `[documented]` (exhibition) Named by Tate in its press material for Turner and Constable: Rivals and Originals, Tate Britain, 27 November 2025 to 12 April 2026. Sotheby's recorded at the time of the sale that the picture had been requested for the exhibition. The lender is not identified publicly. ## Auction results Hammer and buyer's premium are stated separately. Where a source conflates them this record says so. - **1864-07-09** Christie's, London, property of Joseph Hogarth, lot 152 - Hammer: Unsold - Bought in. The last public appearance of the picture for 160 years. Recorded in the Sotheby's 2025 provenance. - **2024-04-04** Dreweatts, Donnington Priory, Newbury, lot 23 - Estimate: GBP 600 - 800 - Hammer: GBP 400, published - With premium: GBP 524.80 including buyer's premium and VAT, published. This is the same transaction as the GBP 400 hammer, not a competing figure: GBP 400 x 1.312 = GBP 524.80 exactly, DERIVED on Dreweatts' own schedule of 26 per cent of the hammer plus VAT at 20 per cent on the premium (31.2 per cent all in) for lots up to GBP 20,000. - Lot 23, Dreweatts, Donnington Priory, Newbury, 4 April 2024, catalogued as follower of Julius Caesar Ibbetson and titled House by the Water in a Stormy Sky. THE CONFLICT THE RECORD CARRIED IS RESOLVED, NOT SPLIT. The row previously read 'GBP 400 as reported by one source; not verified against the house's own result' against 'GBP 524.80 including fees and VAT', and said the two 'come from different outlets and have not been reconciled'. They reconcile exactly. Dreweatts' published buyer's premium in 2024 was 26 per cent of the hammer, 31.2 per cent including VAT, on lots up to and including GBP 20,000, and the house's own worked example on the same page runs 'Hammer price: GBP 100, Premium at 26 per cent of GBP 100 = GBP 26, VAT at 20 per cent of GBP 26 = GBP 5.20'. GBP 400 x 1.312 = GBP 524.80, to the penny. The arithmetic is DERIVED; both GBP 400 and GBP 524.80 are published figures, each from its own source. THE ESTIMATE IS NEW and sharpens the story rather than softening it: the picture did not merely sell cheaply, it sold BELOW its own low estimate of GBP 600 as an anonymous follower's canvas, and made GBP 1.9 m premium-inclusive at Sotheby's fifteen months later. A TRAP FOR ANY FUTURE RE-CHECK, and the reason this note carries the rate rather than only the result: Dreweatts RAISED its premium after this sale. The live schedule on dreweatts.com read on 2026-09-23 is 28 per cent up to GBP 25,000 (33.6 per cent including VAT), which applied to a GBP 400 hammer would give GBP 534.40 and would make the two published figures look irreconcilable. The 26 per cent rate used here is not the current page, it is the contemporary one, read from the Wayback Machine's capture of Dreweatts' own How to bid page taken 29 July 2024, the nearest capture to the sale. ONE PRESS ERROR RECORDED AND NOT ADOPTED: artnet places the Dreweatts sale 'in London'. Donnington Priory is in Newbury, Berkshire, and both The Art Newspaper and Sotheby's own provenance say Newbury; the record should not carry London. - **2025-07-02** Sotheby's, Old Master and 19th Century Paintings Evening Auction, London, sale L25033, lot 28 - Estimate: GBP 200,000 - 300,000 - Hammer: GBP 1.5 m - With premium: c. GBP 1.9 m with buyer's premium - Roughly six times the high estimate. GBP 1.87 m also circulated as the premium-inclusive figure, and dollar conversions of about USD 2.6 m depend on the day. Bidder count reported as four by Artnet and as five by The Art Newspaper, which then itemises four: two in the room, one telephone, one absentee. Bought by a private United Kingdom collector, against the underbidding Bristol Museums Development Trust, which had launched its public appeal on 23 June 2025 intending to bid at or near the high estimate. ## Exhibitions - First public exhibition of a Turner oil, not specified in reporting, 1793 ## Open questions - Who owned the picture between 1864 and 2024? Sotheby's gives only 'private collection, Northamptonshire; thence by descent', with no name and no dates. That is the real gap, and it is about 160 years long. - How did the painting travel to Tasmania and back? It was exhibited in Hobart in 1845 and 1858 and offered at Christie's in London in 1864. Neither shipping is documented in any source consulted. - What did the 2024 hammer price actually come to? Reported as GBP 400 by one source and as GBP 524.80 including fees by another, and rounded to GBP 500 almost everywhere. Dreweatts' own result for lot 23 of 4 April 2024 has not been read directly. - How many bidders competed at Sotheby's? Artnet says four; The Art Newspaper says five active bidders and then itemises four. - Has any technical examination beyond cleaning been carried out and published? No X-radiograph, infrared reflectogram or pigment analysis was found in any source consulted. - Who owns it now, and who lent it to Tate Britain? The buyer is described only as a private United Kingdom collector, and Tate has not named the lender. - Did the picture reach Bristol on loan? The Bristol Museums Development Trust said in July 2025 that it was exploring the possibility. Nothing in the sources consulted records an outcome. ## Sources - [1] Sotheby's, lot 28, 'Joseph Mallord William Turner, R.A., The Rising Squall, Hot Wells, from St Vincent's Rock, Bristol', Old Master and 19th Century Paintings Evening Auction, London, 2 July 2025, sale L25033. Source for the dimensions, the signature, the full provenance and the exhibition history. The catalogue essay and the 21-entry literature list were not reproduced. - [2] C. F. Bell, 'A List of the Works Contributed to Public Exhibitions by J. M. W. Turner, R.A., with Notes' (London: George Bell and Sons, 1901). Section I, Paintings in Water Colours, no. 8: 'The rising squall - hot wells from St. Vincent's rock, Bristol. R.A. 1793, No. 323.' Also no. 6 (the second 1793 Bristol subject, R.A. no. 263), no. 82 (Moonlight, a study at Millbank), the note on the Redgraves' reversal, the Narraway visits, and the introduction to Section II on De Loutherbourg's supposed influence. Full text read. - [3] The Art Newspaper, 4 July 2025, 'GBP 500 Turner painting sells for almost GBP 2m in Sotheby's Old Master sale'. Source for the hammer at GBP 1.5 m against about GBP 1.9 m with premium, the bidder breakdown, and the Dreweatts total of GBP 524.80. - [4] The Art Newspaper, 23 June 2025, 'UK city council launches GBP 100,000 appeal to buy rediscovered Turner painting'. Source for the appeal launch, the target, and the Phillip Walker quotation. - [5] Museums Association, Museums Journal, July 2025, 'Bristol Museum raises GBP 100,000 in five days to bid for Turner painting'. Source for the five-day total, the 1,400 donors, the GBP 2 to GBP 15,000 range, the 23:59 deadline of 1 July 2025, and the Kate Newnham quotation. - [6] Museums + Heritage Advisor, 'Bristol museums trust outbid at Turner auction despite crowdfund success'. Source for the final GBP 109,120 from more than 1,700 donors, the refunds, and the trust's statement about a possible loan. - [7] Tate, 'J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours' research publication, entry for 'Back View of the Hot Wells, Bristol' c. 1792-3, D00389, Turner Bequest XXIII O. Source for the study, its link to the 1793 Royal Academy exhibit, and the Peter Cunningham quotation. - [8] Tate, 'J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours' research publication, 'Bristol and Malmesbury sketchbook 1791', Turner Bequest VI. Source for the Narraway visit, the Prince of the Rocks nickname, the sheet count and the twelve views on the River Avon. - [9] Art & Object, 'Turner's First Exhibited Painting Rediscovered after 150 Years'. Source for the Julian Gascoigne quotation, the Nixon and Tasmania account, and the statement that the picture was mistakenly listed as a watercolour in Turner's obituary. - [10] Tate, press release, 'Turner and Constable: Rivals and Originals', Tate Britain, 27 November 2025 to 12 April 2026. Names the picture as recently discovered and dates Turner's Royal Academy debut to 1790 at fifteen. - [11] Euronews Culture, 6 June 2025, 'Turner's earliest exhibited oil painting is up for auction after disappearing for 150 years'. Source for the pre-sale view dates of 28 June to 1 July 2025 and the displacement of Fishermen at Sea. - [12] Wikimedia Commons file page for the lead plate, crediting the image to Sotheby's, London, 2 July 2025, L25033, lot 28, and carrying the PD-old-100-expired and PD-Art tags. Used to verify that the reproduction is this exact lot. - [13] Wikipedia, 'The Rising Squall, Hot Wells' and 'Royal Academy Exhibition of 1793'. Tertiary. Used only for the 1792 execution date, the Somerset House venue and the Tate Britain display. Flagged for replacement with Andrew Wilton, 'Turner's First Exhibited Oil', Turner Society News no. 143, Spring 2025, pp. 3-5, which was not obtainable. - [14] The Independent Turner Society, 'The History of the Bequest'. Source for the 1831 will, the 1832 codicil, the 1848 provision, the ten-year forfeiture clause, the Chancery decree of 1856 and the GBP 10,000 to the Royal Academy. Flagged for replacement with the National Gallery archive record NG27, which returned HTTP 403. - [15] Wikipedia, 'J. M. W. Turner'. Tertiary. Used for the birth and death dates, the 1789 admission to the Royal Academy Schools at fourteen, the 1790 debut, the elections of 1799 and 1802, the professorship of perspective and the burial at St Paul's. Flagged for replacement with the Royal Academy's own artist record, which returned HTTP 403. - [16] The National Gallery, London, 'The Turner Bequest'. Source for the totals of nearly 300 oils and around 30,000 works on paper including 300 sketchbooks, the figures of 100 finished and 182 unfinished paintings and 19,049 drawings, the contest of the will and the Chancery settlement of 19 March 1856. Read via search result summary; the page itself returned HTTP 403 and should be re-read directly. - [17] Kent Online (Kent Messenger / PA Media wire), 'King asked what British artwork might be lurking in Australia in gallery tour', on King Charles III's after-hours visit to Turner and Constable: Rivals and Originals, Tate Britain, Tuesday 10 March 2026. Source for the date of the royal visit and the exact quotation about this painting. - [18] theartnewspaper.com, web page cited for the Dreweatts sale of 2024-04-04. - [19] news.artnet.com, web page cited for the Dreweatts sale of 2024-04-04. - [20] sothebys.com, web page cited for the Dreweatts sale of 2024-04-04. - [21] web.archive.org, web page cited for the Dreweatts sale of 2024-04-04. - [22] dreweatts.com, web page cited for the Dreweatts sale of 2024-04-04. --- Images on this record are public domain or CC0 and are hosted by us. No image on this site is generated or simulated. 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