Council’s £100k appeal to buy lost Turner painting for Bristol

A council has launched a one-week fundraiser to return JMW Turner’s earliest-known oil portray “to its residence”.Bristol Metropolis Council, which owns Bristol Museum and Artwork Gallery, is making an attempt to lift £100,000 to assist buy The Rising Squall, which depicts the Avon Gorge.The portray had been misplaced for 150 years earlier than it was rediscovered final yr.Phillip Walker, head of tradition for Bristol Metropolis Council, mentioned: “It is an extremely necessary and related portray for Bristol as a result of it is the very first and doubtless solely oil portray that Turner ever painted of a Bristol scene.””That is the very first oil portray he ever painted… what’s extra unbelievable is that he was solely 17 on the time,” Mr Walker added.The information worth for the portray is £300,000, and the council hopes to lift the remainder of the cash from different sources earlier than the public sale on 2 July.Mr Walker mentioned the council is “placing all of its feelers out” to “attempt to elevate the cash it may to face an opportunity at bidding”.The portray was debuted on the Royal Academy in 1793, three days after Turner’s 18th birthday, earlier than being purchased by Reverend Robert Nixon, a buyer of Turner’s father’s barber store.Mr Nixon’s son inherited the portray after his loss of life, and it then fell “into obscurity”, having final been exhibited in Tasmania, Australia.If the council is unsuccessful in buying Turner’s work, it mentioned all the cash that has been donated will likely be returned.”We need to make this work, so we’re asking anybody who can to assist and share the passion and the chance,” Mr Walker mentioned.”This actually is a once-in-a-lifetime probability for Bristol to point out how necessary artwork and tradition are to it.”