Turner’s Rising Squall is more than a lucky attic find. The canvas reconnects us with precocious genius and highlights conservation’s detective power and market dynamics.
Lightning sometimes strikes twice in the art world. Turner’s Rising Squall, long mistaken for a minor eighteenth-century seascape, has burst back onto the scene. The canvas vanished for 150 years and now rewrites Turner’s first chapter.
Painted at seventeen, the work is now recognized as Turner’s first publicly shown oil. Its rediscovery—perfectly timed for the artist’s 250th-birthday celebrations—fuses academic thrill with market drama.
In 1793 the storm-charged Bristol vista dazzled visitors to the Royal Academy, then slipped into private hands. After Reverend Robert Nixon’s death, it travelled quietly and was last recorded in Tasmania in 1858.
Fast-forward to April 2024: Dreweatts catalogued the painting as “House by the water under a stormy sky,” crediting a follower of Julius Caesar Ibbetson. It hammered for barely £525, a price worthy of the misattribution—not the masterpiece.
The new owner ordered a clean. Beneath yellowed varnish, Turner’s signature gleamed, igniting a scholarly sprint and an attribution overhaul.
Sotheby’s gathered every living Turner specialist; consensus was instant. Authentication unlocked a fresh price tier, and the Old Masters evening sale carries a £200,000–£300,000 estimate.
April 2024: Dreweatts sale, £524.80, misattributed.
July 2025: Sotheby’s estimate £200k–£300k.
Value jump: roughly 500× in fourteen months.
Such “sleeping beauties” remind collectors that attribution, conservation and timing can multiply value faster than any stock.
The painting shows Hot Wells under a bruised sky, viewed from St Vincent’s Rock. Even at seventeen, Turner channels atmosphere with watercolor finesse in oil, foreshadowing later luminous turbulence.
The new dating ousts Fisherman at Sea and shows Turner mastered oil years earlier.
Viewers can see this teenage audacity in London from 28 June to 1 July, ahead of the 2 July auction.
Turner’s Rising Squall is more than a lucky attic find; it is a seismic footnote turned headline. The canvas reconnects us with precocious genius and highlights conservation’s detective power and market dynamics. Keep an eye on Sotheby’s rostrum—this tempest may yet blow past its own forecast.
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