![\"Illustration](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2a33b4e3-805c-4d79-8973-81e16ef19196.jpg\")
Self-portrait of JMW Turner, 1799, aged 24. Abergavenny Bridge was exhibited at the Royal Academy the same yearART MEDIA\/PRINT COLLECTOR\/Getty IMAGES<\/p>\nThe painting which kick-started JMW Turner\u2019s career is to be shown publicly for the first time since the end of the 18th century. <\/p>\n
Abergavenny Bridge (1798) was displayed just once at the Royal Academy in 1799 before being bought by a private individual. Over the next two centuries it was owned by a handful of other British collectors.<\/p>\n
The watercolour is especially significant because it is the one which helped Turner to be elected, at 24 years old, as the youngest associate royal academician. He became a full RA three years later.<\/p>\n
Self-portrait of JMW Turner, 1799, aged 24. Abergavenny Bridge was exhibited at the Royal Academy the same yearART MEDIA\/PRINT COLLECTOR\/Getty IMAGES<\/p>\n
Next month Abergavenny Bridge, Monmouthshire: Clearing up after a Showery Day, to give the painting its full title, will be shown at an exhibition at Gainsborough House\u2019s museum and art gallery<\/a> in Suffolk after its owner for the past 34 years agreed to its first loan. He paid \u00a371,500 for the mid-sized watercolour in 1992 \u2014 it is now worth significantly more.<\/p>\n Emma Boyd, Gainsborough House\u2019s curator, said: \u201cIt\u2019s a watercolour, which made Turner\u2019s career. It\u2019s really surprising when something like this turns up.\u201d<\/p>\n In the summer of 1798 Turner spent six weeks sketching in Wales, starting from Bristol where he had stayed a few days with the Narraway family, who were friends of his father. <\/p>\n Boyd has read a letter, written by John Narraway\u2019s niece, Ann Dart, stating: \u201cTurner went from my uncle\u2019s house on a sketching tour of Wales. My uncle gave him a pony and lent him a saddle, bridle and cloak. But these he never returned.\u201d Turner\u2019s excuse might have been that he was then impecunious.<\/p>\n There is now very strong evidence that this watercolour of Abergavenny Bridge persuaded senior Royal Academicians to make the young Turner an associate member \u2014 the first stepping stone in his stellar career. Joseph Farington, a leading RA and fan of Turner, wrote in his diary on September 26, 1798, that \u201c[William] Turner called on me. He has been in south and north Wales this summer \u2014 alone and on horseback \u2014 out 7 weeks \u2014 much rain but better for effects. I mentioned election of Associates to him. He should have my vote.\u201d<\/p>\n It is significant that Farington, himself a noted landscape artist, wrote about \u201crain effects\u201d as Turner\u2019s works later became synonymous with weather, clouds and water.<\/p>\n On March 13, 1799, Farington made another diary entry, writing: \u201cTurner I called on and saw his drawing of Abergavenny Bridge, made for Lawrence.\u201d In other words, Turner\u2019s Abergavenny Bridge had been commissioned for Sir Thomas Lawrence, then England\u2019s most successful portrait painter and a distinguished RA. Records from 1799 show that Lawrence was the first to purchase the watercolour.<\/p>\n Ian Warrell, an author who specialises in Turner\u2019s works, said: \u201cIt\u2019s really nice to go back and find this missing piece in Turner\u2019s career. It solves a puzzle.\u201d<\/p>\n The Gainsborough\u2019s House exhibition, Gainsborough, Turner and Constable: Inventing Landscape opens on April 25. It includes three more Turner watercolours, including one of Brighton from the mid-1790s that has not been displayed before. <\/p>\n Among other works will be Thomas Gainsborough\u2019s oil Landscape with Cattle, A Young Man Courting a Milkmaid, not seen in the UK since 1952, and John Constable\u2019s The Leaping Horse, being shown for the first time in Suffolk<\/a>, the county in which it was painted. There are also some contemporary landscapes of Wales by David Dawson and of East Anglia by Kate Giles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The painting which kick-started JMW Turner\u2019s career is to be shown publicly for the first time since the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457648,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-457647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Exterior](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/f9509af9-28fd-4c70-a189-25636ff0c281.jpg\")
Gainsborough\u2019s House, SuffolkAlamy<\/p>\n![\"Self-portrait](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/e8d00922-2560-431f-9f71-a7385b5d28de.jpg\")
Sir Thomas Lawrence, self-portrait, 1788Alamy<\/p>\n![\"Illustration](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/c081ccb4-1695-424f-a516-118a83ae1c1f.jpg\")
The Leaping Horse, by John Constable will also feature in the exhibitionROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS<\/p>\n