‘Fake’ Turner worth a fortune as it gets stamp of authenticity
The painting of Cilgerran Castle, which had baffled art historians for years, sold for £1m at Sotheby’s
A TURNER painting that was thought to have been a fake for over a century has been re-attributed to the artist after research revealed he bought back the picture himself and made alterations that left previous scholars perplexed.
The oil painting of Cilgerran Castle in Wales is a rare second version of another picture of the same view, which is currently housed in Cragside, Northumberland.
For more than 120 years scholars have debated the authenticity of this second painting since it was exhibited at the Guildhall in 1899, partly owing to slight changes made to the sky.
Art historians were unable to work out why the painting, created when JMW Turner was in his early 20s, used materials and techniques reminiscent of Turner’s later style.
Now, thanks to a combination of years of historical research and cuttingedge technology “the final piece in the jigsaw” has been unearthed and the painting can at last be added to Turner’s canon. Last week, the painting sold for £1 million at an Old Masters evening auction at Sotheby’s.
Originally established by the Normans in the 12th century, the remote Cilgerran Castle is one of the most spectacularly sited castles in Wales, looming high over a deep gorge on the River Teifi near Cardigan. Turner first visited Cilgerran on his tour of South Wales in 1798 and was stimulated by the history of Wales and its myths and legends.
Julian Gascoigne, Sotheby’s senior specialist of British paintings, explained to The Sunday Telegraph the painstaking three-year-long road to finally solving the century-old mystery.
It began when Sotheby’s carried out a routine valuation for the former owner of the painting. The team decided that the portrait merited further research and that it should be viewed alongside the original to help confirm the authenticity.
Ian Warrell, an eminent Turner scholar, assessed the pictures together at Cragside, and concluded they were likely created “by the same hand”.
Mr Gascoigne said: “The final piece of the jigsaw puzzle …was that this picture was re-purchased in 1827 from Sir John Fleming Leicester, an incredibly important collector who had bought the picture years earlier, by Turner himself.”
Because Turner had used an agent to buy back the picture, the name in the catalogue was different and it was only when Mr Warrell uncovered a press report from the time that the true identity of the buyer was revealed.
Mr Gascoigne continued: “By this stage, in 1827, Turner is a mature artist and he gets back a picture he painted in his early 20s, in about 1799, and obviously feeling unsatisfied with certain aspects he goes in and adds to the painting. He made amendments then sold the picture on to his great patron, Hugh Andrew Johnstone, Munro of Novar.”
Mr Gascoigne said that by this time in his life, Turner was re-purchasing a number of his paintings with the view to bequeathing them to the nation.
The team at Sotheby’s analysed the picture using a specialist X-ray fluorescence machine which mapped the elements and components in the paint. They then cross-referenced this information with their historical research and were able to confirm the painting as part of Turner’s legacy. Mr Gascoigne added: “What was once an unresolvable question has now been resolved.”