One of JMW Turner’s most famous landscapes went on view in Rome on Tuesday, ahead of an auction in the UK where it could fetch around 50 million euros ($57 million) and set a fresh record for the British painter.
"Rome, From Mount Aventine" was presented at Palazzo Rondinini in the Italian capital for a three-day public preview, prior to being put up for auction by Sotheby’s in London on 9 December.
The 1836 canvas offers a panoramic view of Rome from the Aventine Hill over the Tiber River. Sotheby’s considers the piece to be amongst the most important Turner paintings remaining in private hands.
Its presentation in Rome arrives almost two centuries after the city provided the original inspiration. Sotheby’s stated that Turner created the work using sketches from an 1828 trip, likely starting it in Rome before finishing it in London for exhibition at the Royal Academy.
Julian Gascoigne, a senior specialist in British paintings at Sotheby’s, highlighted the artwork's exceptional state of preservation, which allows viewers to examine Turner’s technique in remarkable detail.
Gascoigne said Turner applied 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, noted that the presale estimate reflects the painting’s rarity, origin and condition.
The piece was last sold by Sotheby’s in 2014 for $47.6 million, setting a then-record for a work by Turner. It has been held by the same buyer ever since.
Turner’s patron Hugh Andrew Johnstone Munro originally commissioned the artwork, which was later acquired for the collection of Archibald Primrose, the 5th Earl of Rosebery, who subsequently served as British prime minister.
According to Sotheby’s, Rosebery bought the painting for his wife, Hannah de Rothschild, who was among the wealthiest women in Britain at the time.
The artwork stayed within the Rosebery family collection for over 100 years prior to the 2014 auction.
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