J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851) – Rome from Mount Aventine
There was a new world record for Turner tonight when his masterpiece Rome from Mount Aventine sold for £30.3 million at Sotheby’s. Painted in 1835 and exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1836, when Turner was 61 years old, Rome, from Mount Aventine is one of the artist’s supreme achievements and arguably the most important view of the Italian city ever painted. The large-scale oil painting is further distinguished by its exceptional state of preservation, as well as a prestigious and unbroken provenance. The work has changed hands only once, in 1878, when it was acquired by the 5th Earl of Rosebery, later Prime Minister of Great Britain. The painting, in its original frame, has since remained undisturbed in the Rosebery collection.
This result represents the highest price for any pre-20thcentury British artist ever sold at auction and the most valuable Old Master and British Painting auctioned in 2014. Four bidders competed for the work. The sale coincided with a wider moment of Turner mania, with the groundbreaking exhibition of “Late Turner” at the Tate and Mike Leigh’s sensational film “Mr Turner”.
The previous record for a Turner was Modern Rome – Campo Vaccino (1838-1839) acquired by the J. Paul Getty Museum for £29,721,250 at Sotheby’s in 2010.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for September 8, 2014).