Turner's 'Rome, From Mount Aventine' Goes on Show in Rome Before London Sale

A landscape by the British romantic painter J.M.W. Turner has gone on public display in Rome ahead of an auction that specialists expect could raise around 50 million euros (nearly 57 million US dollars).

"Rome, From Mount Aventine", painted in 1836, depicts the view from Rome's Aventine hill across the city, with the Tiber winding through it and an umbrella pine rising above a monk and a peasant woman on the hillside.

The painting is being shown at the baroque Palazzo Rondinini in central Rome from September 29 to October 1, a three-day viewing that returns the work to the city Turner committed to canvas nearly two centuries ago. It will then go under the hammer in London on December 9.

Julian Gascoigne, a senior specialist in British paintings at Sotheby's, described the work as one of the last great late masterpieces by Turner still in private hands. It grew out of sketches the artist made in Rome in 1828, which survive in his sketchbooks, and was probably begun in the city before being finished in London in time for exhibition at the Royal Academy.

Gascoigne said the painting's importance within Turner's output lies partly in its condition: it is unlined and has been preserved exceptionally well, allowing viewers to see the artist's delicate technique in unusual detail. He described how Turner applied oil paint as though it were watercolour, building successive translucent layers of hazy light and glazes alongside thick impasto, vigorous brushstrokes and palette-knife scraping, and at times using his fingers.

Mario Tavella, chairman of Sotheby's Europe, said the estimate of around 50 million euros reflects the work's rarity, scale, state of conservation and provenance. He said the price was appropriate when compared with certain contemporary and modern works, and that moving art of this importance around the world is routine for the auction house, which often sends the same masterpiece to different branches so the public can admire it.

The sale will mark the third time the painting changes hands. It was commissioned by a patron of Turner and later bought by Archibald Primrose, Earl of Rosebery, who went on to serve as British Prime Minister for a year from 1894. According to Sotheby's, Primrose acquired it for his wife, Hannah de Rothschild, then the wealthiest woman in Britain. In 2014 it was sold by the Rosebery family for 47.6 million US dollars, a world record for Turner, and the buyer from that sale remains the owner.