A landscape by J.M.W. Turner showing a sweeping view of Rome has gone on show in the Italian capital ahead of its auction in London, when the painting is expected to fetch around £50m—a price that would beat the previous auction record for Turner, made by the same work 12 years prior.
The painting Rome, from Mount Aventine (1836) was unveiled today at the Palazzo Rondinini, a lavish baroque residence built by an art collector in the 18th-century. The canvas depicts an umbrella pine tree set against the winding river Tiber, with the Eternal City bathed in soft light and stretching into the distance.
The three-day exhibition is intended to generate interest ahead of the Old Masters and 19th-century evening auction at Sotheby’s London on 9 December, led by Rome, from Mount Aventine. Buyers will be offered a rare opportunity to snap up a great late Turner, of which few are privately owned, according to the auction house.
“The vast majority now sit in museums around the world, so I could count on one hand the number of late, great [Turner] masterpieces in private hands,” Julian Gascoigne, the senior specialist in British paintings at Sotheby’s London, tells The Art Newspaper. “This work stands as one of the greatest among those.”
Painted for Hugh Andrew Johnstone Munro of Novar, Turner’s friend and patron, the painting was purchased in 1878 by Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery and a future British prime minister, as a wedding gift for his marriage with Hannah de Rothschild, then the wealthiest woman in Britain.
The work has changed hands only once since then, selling at Sotheby’s London in 2014 for £30.3 million (including fees)—then a new record for the artist—to enter what Gascoigne describes as “a distinguished private collection”.
The work goes on display at the Palazzo Rondinini in Rome
Sotheby's
Its expected price this time partly reflects its rarity. “In the twelve years since this painting has last come to auction, there has been no Turner of its calibre on the market,” says Gascoigne, “and so its return represents a huge opportunity for collectors”.
Another factor is the work’s "extraordinary state of preservation”, according to a statement. The auction house describes the canvas as having an “astonishing freshness”, with Turner’s fingerprints, scrapes from his palette knife and individual brush hairs visible in the wet paint. The work has never been restored and remains on its original canvas and in its original frame.
“I could see this picture on the walls of a contemporary collector as easily as I could see it alongside paintings from the same period,” Gascoigne says. “There is also every chance that an institution might want to enter the fray.”
The Rome exhibition makes the painting the most valuable work ever shown by an auction house in Italy, according to Sotheby's. Its display in the city also offers an opportunity to explore Turner’s fascination with Rome, a magnet for artists during the 19th century and a city he visited twice.
Thereafter, the painting will travel to Sotheby’s galleries in London, Hong Kong (with the auction house noting high interest in Turner among Asian clients), and New York (as the artist has a substantial prescence in American collections). It will finally return to London for display at Sotheby’s New Bond Street gallery ahead of the 9 December sale.
“We are confident that the return of this extraordinary work to auction marks a significant opportunity for collectors, and hope that this will be reflected in the bidding,” Gascoigne says.