J.M.W. Turner Painting of Rome to Auction for Estimated $57 Million
One of the British artist's most renowned landscapes, 'Rome, From Mount Aventine,' will be displayed in Rome before its sale in London.
A celebrated landscape by J.M.W. Turner, titled "Rome, From Mount Aventine," has returned to the Italian capital for public display ahead of a U.K. auction where it is expected to fetch approximately 50 million euros ($57 million). If successful, the sale could establish a new auction record for the renowned British artist.
The painting, created in 1836, offers a panoramic vista of Rome as seen from the Aventine Hill, overlooking the Tiber River. Its exhibition at Palazzo Rondinini in Rome is scheduled for three days before it goes to auction at Sotheby's in London on December 9.
Sotheby's considers "Rome, From Mount Aventine" to be one of the most significant works by Turner still in private ownership. The painting's exhibition in Rome comes nearly two centuries after the city served as its inspiration. Turner is believed to have based the artwork on sketches from a visit in 1828, likely beginning its creation in Rome before its completion and exhibition at the Royal Academy in London.
Julian Gascoigne, a senior specialist in British paintings at Sotheby's, highlighted the painting's exceptional state of preservation. This condition allows for a detailed appreciation of Turner's technique, which Gascoigne described as applying oil paint "as if it was watercolor, building it up in successive translucent layers of hazy light and glazes, and the thick impasto of vigorous brush strokes and scraping of palette knives, and he even used his fingers on occasion."
Mario Tavella, chairman of Sotheby's Europe, stated that the estimated value reflects the artwork's rarity, provenance, and condition. The painting was previously sold at Sotheby's in 2014 for $47.6 million, which was a record for a Turner work at the time. It has remained with the same owner since that sale.
Originally commissioned by Turner's patron Hugh Andrew Johnstone Munro, the painting later became part of the collection of Archibald Primrose, the 5th Earl of Rosebery, who served as British prime minister. According to Sotheby's, the Earl acquired the work for his wife, Hannah de Rothschild, who was among Britain's wealthiest women during that era. The Rosebery family retained ownership of the painting for over a century before its 2014 sale.