Exciting news from Swann's Prints & Drawings Department: A watercolor in our upcoming Old Master Drawings auction that was catalogued as from the Circle of Joseph M.W. Turner has now been revealed to be, in all likelihood, a Turner original.
The watercolor, From Ehrenbreitstein, is quite likely an original work by Turner himself, according to David Hill, Harewood Professor of Fine Art at the University of Leeds and a scholar of Turner. Professor Hill explained that the style, handling, size and quality of detail all seem to indicate that the work is an untraced original—and, potentially, a significant discovery.
Turner would have painted this work on the spot during his tour of the Rhine in 1817. It is one of a series of 50 that the artist sold to his Yorkshire patron Walter Fawkes of Farnley Hall. The group was dispersed in various sales from Farnley after 1890 and examples are now in collections around the world.
The current presale estimate is $1,000 to $1,500.