Salisbury Plain with Old Sarum in the distance, Wiltshire
William Turner of Oxford British
Not on view
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.