J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1787-1801 Student and master > Oxford c.1787-91 > Oxford and Other Subjects > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Distant View of Oxford from the Abingdon Road (Oxford from South Hinksey) 1789

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Distant View of Oxford from the Abingdon Road (Oxford from South Hinksey)’ 1789
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Distant View of Oxford from the Abingdon Road (Oxford from South Hinksey) 1789
D00046
Turner Bequest III A
Pencil and watercolour with pen and black ink, with ruled washline border, inner dimensions 250 x 435 mm, on white wove paper, 309 x 496 mm
Inscribed by Turner in blue ink ‘Wm Turner 1789’ lower right
Stamped in black ‘III A’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This panorama is based on the pencil drawing that Turner made in his Oxford sketchbook (Tate D00017; Turner Bequest II 7). Harrison suggests that the use of black ink outlines recalls the work of Paul Sandby, which Turner may well have had in mind at this time, along with that of other leading topographers. Hill describes it as a ‘first tentative attempt’ at panoramic landscape.
Verso:
Blank; inscribed in blue ink: ‘II’; the old mount (now removed) bore an inscription by Ruskin in pencil, top left-hand corner: ‘The first view of Oxford | Oxford 177 –1’.

Andrew Wilton
April 2012

How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Distant View of Oxford from the Abingdon Road (Oxford from South Hinksey) 1789 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2012, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2012, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-distant-view-of-oxford-from-the-abingdon-road-oxford-from-r1140096, accessed 19 May 2024.