Turner seascape fails to sell

A seascape by Turner which auctioneers had predicted could have become the most expensive work yet by the British artist today failed to find a buyer.

Sheerness As Seen From The Nore had been estimated to go under the hammer at Christie’s in New York for up to £5.5m (€8,95m), with auctioneers predicting it could well have shattered the £6.7m (€10.9m) record.

The record was set in 1994 for Seascape: Folkestone, but Sheerness As Seen From The Nore today failed to reach its undisclosed reserve price.

London-born Joseph Turner was one of the 19th century’s great artists andpainted the work after visiting Sheerness in 1805 to see HMS Victory returning from Trafalgar with the body of Lord Nelson.

The 3ft by 4ft canvas was the largest he could squeeze on to the Nore, a small boat which he took out on the waters at the busy anchorage to sketch his work.

The painting was sold to merchant Samuel Dobree, whose son sold it in 1842 for 170 guineas to the Baring banking family.

It was sold again in 1848 for 550 guineas, to a William Wells, despite an attempt by Turner to buy it back.

And in 1890 it was bought for 7,100 guineas, a sum equivalent to £380,000 today, by Robert Loyd Lindsay, who later became Lord Wantage and whose family sold it privately in 1991 to the anonymous owner who had put it under the hammer today.