Salisbury Plain with Old Sarum in the distance, Wiltshire
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.
Artwork Details
- Title: Salisbury Plain with Old Sarum in the distance, Wiltshire
- Artist: William Turner of Oxford (British, Black Bourton, Oxfordshire 1789–1862 Oxford)
- Date: 1810–62
- Medium: Watercolor over graphite, with reductive techniques and gum arabic
- Dimensions: sheet: 4 3/4 x 6 15/16 in. (12 x 17.7 cm)
- Classification: Drawings
- Credit Line: Purchase, Charles and Jessie Price Gift, 2003
- Object Number: 2003.105
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
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William Turner of Oxford
after 1825
Joseph Mallord William Turner
1843
Samuel Palmer
1856
John Ruskin
1849–50
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Henry Treffry Dunn
1867
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