Tate Britain, the London museum that holds a priceless collection of paintings by J.M.W. Turner, is appealing to the public to help it buy one more Turner painting.

The Tate has launched a "buy a brushstroke" appeal to help it raise £4.95 million ($11.5 million Cdn) to buy The Blue Rigi: Lake of Lucerne, Sunrise.

Joseph Mallord William Turner's The Blue Rigi: Lake of Lucerne, Sunrise set a new record for the sale of a British watercolour, and the Tate Britain is eager to buy it from its overseas owner.
(Courtesy Christie's)

The watercolour, one of a series the British landscape artist did in a tour of Switzerland in 1842, was sold to an overseas collector last June.

But the government delayed an export permit for the painting to give the Tate time to buy it.

"There is very little chance of the Tate ever acquiring another Turner watercolour of this stature again," said David Barrie, director of the country's leading art charity The Art Fund.

The Art Fund has donated £500,000, the Tate itself will contribute up to £2 million from its own capital budget and it hopes to raise at least £300,000 from public donations by its March 20 deadline.

Although the collector paid a record £5.8 million ($12.3 million) for the painting, double the record price for a piece of British art on paper, the Tate needs a little less — £4.95 million — because it will not have to pay taxes on the purchase.

The Tate's internet campaign invites art lovers to "buy a brushstroke" from the famous work for £5.

Among the British artists who have bought brushstrokes are David Hockney, Peter Blake, Martin Creed, Antony Gormley, Howard Hodgkin, Anish Kapoor, Fiona Rae, Bridget Riley, Mark Wallinger and Rachel Whiteread.

"We're now halfway towards our goal, but we're in a race against time to raise the remaining funds," said Tate director Nicholas Serota.

The work shows the Rigi mountain rising above Lake Lucerne in Switzerland and is one of three versions of the same landscape that are considered to be Turner's finest work.

The Red Rigi has been in the National Gallery of Melbourne since 1947. The Dark Rigi and The Blue Rigi have been in private collections.

The Tate has reunited the three in a public exhibition running from Monday through to March 25.

The museum hopes the display will help generate interest in preserving The Blue Rigi in a public collection.

It is not the first public appeal to save a work of British art.

The National Gallery in London had a successful campaign to raise public funds to buy a portrait of John Donne last year.