A Landscape with an Old Oak (or Beech) Tree

Joseph Mallord William Turner

ca. 1796 · Watercolor over graphite · Drawings and Prints

This watercolour relates to a group that Turner painted at or near Norbury Park, Surrey in the mid seventeen-nineties. The young artist had been commissioned to paint an image of the fern house at Norbury by William Lock (1732–1810) and exhibited a related watercolor at the Royal Academy in 1798. Lock, himself a keen amateur artist, had employed Thomas Sandby to build Norbury Park in the late 1770s and commissioned George Barret to carry out the decorations. A prominent single old large tree stands at the center of the drawing in an open park, with additional trees beyond. A windmill is seen in the center distance, below the branches with sheep lying at the edge of the grass.

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner

Date

ca. 1796

Medium

Watercolor over graphite

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of Jacqueline Loewe Fowler, 2020