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'Prince of the rocks': fragile works by teenage Turner go on show
The Guardian
|September 25, 2025
He was so keen on clambering around the craggy cliffs of the Avon Gorge as a teenager that he was nicknamed “prince of the rocks”.
An exhibition featuring rarely seen JMW Turner watercolours inspired by his nimble explorations of the gorge is opening at Bristol Museum & Art Gallery. The works are so fragile that they are rarely brought out of careful storage and may not be seen again for a while.
The show is partly a thank you to members of the public who donated more than £100,000 in a week, allowing the museum to bid for another recently discovered Turner painting of Bristol, The Rising Squall. Despite the efforts of Bristol art lovers and the museum efforts, an anonymous UK private collector came in with a higher sum, scuppering the Bring Turner Home effort.
On display in the show are four watercolours painted by Turner during his first visit to the city, aged 16, at the end of the 18th century. The paintings reveal his growing skill in architectural detail, natural observation and dramatic composition.
This story is from the September 25, 2025 edition of The Guardian.
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