It was sold at auction in 2018to an overseas buyer, but was then subject to an export stop; it was then saved for the nation in 2019, with substantial help from both the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Art Fund. It will now take its place in the collection of Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery. It’s a glorious early Turner, and may have been the first painting he did directly from nature, starting off sketching ‘en plein air’ on and beside the River Thames.

Until this acquistion was made, there was no Turner oil painting in a public collection in Norfolk, Suffolk or Essex. The Norwich Castle Museum has a strong collection of works by the Norwich School who were influenced by Turner.

Provenance

Sir John Leicester, by whom purchased from Turner, possibly with another picture, 1807, and probably sold or exchanged by 1819; Thomas Wright of Upton; his sale, Christies, 7 June 1845 (58) bt. by Pennell; Joseph Gillott by 1847; his executor's sale,