J.M.W. Turner Painted This Breathtaking Roman Landscape Nearly 200 Years Ago. If You Look Closely, You Can Still See His Fingerprints

The Romantic painter completed “Rome, From Mount Aventine” in the 1830s. It became his most expensive artwork in 2014, and it’s expected to sell for another record-breaking sum in December

Ellen Wexler | Writer and Special Projects Editor

October 8, 2026 2:56 p.m.

Share

Copy linkEmailSMSFacebookXRedditLinkedInBlueskyPrint

Add as preferred source

When J.M.W. Turner landed a commission to paint Rome in the early 19th century, his patron gave him specific instructions: He was to capture the city authentically, showing modern life beside the ancient ruins. The piece should be “‘a copy,’ not an ideal picture,” according to an early Turner biographer, and the artist was “particularly anxious to comply.”

The patron, Hugh Andrew Johnstone Munro of Novar, kept Rome, From Mount Aventine for the rest of his life. After he died, the painting was purchased by Archibald Primrose, who would later become the British prime minister. It remained with his descendants until 2014, when it sold for $47.4 million, becoming the most expensive Turner ever auctioned.

Now, it’s up for grabs once again. On December 9, the landscape will appear at a much-anticipated Sotheby’s auction, where it’s expected to fetch a record-breaking $66 million. Accounting for inflation, this estimate is about 15 percent higher than the 2014 price.

“As an artist, Turner is at his best when working with a subject that has close personal meaning, and no subject could be closer to his heart than Rome,” Julian Gascoigne, a senior director at Sotheby’s, writes in an essay. “In all my years in the art world, few other works have appeared that are as exceptional as this.”

Nearly 200 years later, the canvas still bears evidence of the Romantic artist’s energetic handiwork: Small hairs from his brush and marks from his palette knife are visible. Viewers can even make out some of his fingerprints. The painting will be sold in its original frame, and it’s one of only two late Turners that remain unlined.

Ahead of the auction, the painting went on display in Rome for a few days last week. It will now travel to London, Hong Kong and New York. Mario Tavella, chairman of Sotheby’s Europe, tells Agence France-Presse that he hopes the piece will find its way to a museum “where it could be admired by everyone.”

Born in London in 1775, Turner started painting as a boy, and his father proudly displayed his creations in the barbershop where he worked. He was accepted into the Royal Academy at age 14, and he studied paintings and sculptures by famous Italian artists years before he traveled to the country. With time, “his works became more and more expressive,” per the Ashmolean Museum, “with some bordering on abstract as form, and detail became secondary to the mood of the scene.” Today, the so-called painter of light is known for his sweeping landscapes and dramatic colors.

“Turner was revolutionary. He broke down the formal structure of the painting and moved toward forms that are looser and more abstract,” Gascoigne tells Artnet’s Richard Whiddington. “It’s a new vision of what painting can be and how we should perceive the painted image.”

Experts aren’t sure exactly when Munro commissioned Rome, From Mount Aventine. According to a statement from Sotheby’s, Turner started working on the painting in the late 1820s, when he traveled to the city and completed five detailed studies. He later finished the scene in London. The landscape shows the Tiber River flowing through the bustling city, which is lit by brilliant yellow sunshine. Turner added a priest and a young girl in the foreground beneath a towering umbrella pine.

In 1836, the painting went on view at the Royal Academy, where it sparked heated disagreements. “There was a group of critics who did not ‘get’ him, who thought his coloring was crude and sloppy and didn’t understand his fascination with light and atmosphere,” Gascoigne tells the London Times’ Tom Kington. “Others, however, saw him as a revolutionary genius.”

Ellen Wexler is a staff writer and special projects editor, digital, for Smithsonian magazine.