Salisbury Plain with Old Sarum in the Distance, Wiltshire

William Turner of Oxford

1810–62 · Watercolor over graphite, with reductive techniques and gum arabic · Drawings and Prints

Washes of mauve and blue, dragged so wet across the rough-textured paper that they caused it to buckle slightly, create a darkening sky. Beneath the clouds that fill the largest portion of the sheet, a single figure accompanied by a dog-conveyed with a few brisk black strokes-walks through a field toward a narrow horizon brilliant with white-yellow light. In the far distance, a few standing forms appear silhouetted against the sky. The artist, called "Turner of Oxford" to distinguish him from his better-known contemporary J. M. W. Turner, captured a landscape widely admired by nineteenth-century painters for its striking light effects: that of Old Sarum, a mile and a half from modern Salisbury. The artist exhibited at least three views of the area between 1835 and 1845, which suggests a similar date for the present work.

Artist

William Turner of Oxford

Date

1810–62

Medium

Watercolor over graphite, with reductive techniques and gum arabic

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Purchase, Charles and Jessie Price Gift, 2003