Turner’s surprise discovery is worth $500,000 at auction

A recently rediscovered rare watercolor by the painter William Turner (1775-1851), the greatest exponent of English Romanticism, could fetch half a million dollars when it goes under the hammer at Christie’s in New York on February 4. The watercolor sketch of the Venice lagoon with fog was identified as the artist’s work when it was submitted to Christie’s “Request an Estimate” digital appraisal service. It had previously been incorrectly attributed to the Victorian art critic and artist John Ruskin.

This discovery was an unexpected windfall for the owner of the work, as the new attribution to a famous artist like Turner inflated the price of the painting by about tenfold. “The Approach to Venice or Venice from the Lagoon” (c. 1840) will be featured in the ‘Old Master and British Drawings’ sale with an estimate of $300,000-500,000.

The work’s current owner is a descendant of the engineer Haddon C. Adams, a well-known Ruskin collector who once said, “collecting Ruskin is my only luxury.” Born in England in 1898, Adams immigrated to Illinois after graduating from Cambridge University in 1922 and became chief bridge engineer for the U.S. Department of Transportation. Turner’s watercolor was purchased around 1930 and has remained in the family ever since.

At the time of Adams’ purchase, the watercolor sketch had been correctly attributed to Turner, but was later incorrectly identified, The Art Newspaper reported. Ruskin was known to have been a passionate admirer of Turner and once declared: “We have had, living with us and painting for us, the greatest painter of all time, a man whose supremacy of power no intellect of ages past can be compared for a moment.” This rave review may explain Adams’ interest in purchasing a Turner.

When the owner of the painting sent a photograph of the work to Christie’s online valuation service a few months ago, it immediately piqued the interest of British drawings and watercolor specialist Rosie Jarvie. Art historian Peter Bower, a Turner specialist, was able to attribute the work when he studied the paper on which the watercolor was made and discovered that its typology corresponded to that of other views of Venice by Turner. Expert Ian Warrell also gave his seal of approval to the reattribution.

Some of Turner’s watercolors have fetched more than $1 million at auction, while others have fetched less. Last year, another long-lost Turner watercolor was rediscovered. The owner had purchased it as part of a larger group of paintings for which he had paid just £100, equivalent to around £235 today, at a small regional auction in 1990. The work, entitled “The Entrance to Bishop Vaughn’s Chapel, St David’s Cathedral, Wales” (1795), was painted when the artist was just 20 years old. It was sold by Cambridge auction house Cheffins for £37,000 ($47,025) above its high estimate of £30,000 ($38,000).