William Turner of Oxford ( 1789 - 1862 )

A view looking towards Cheltenham, with the Malvern Hills beyond


A view looking towards Cheltenham, with the Malvern Hills beyond


Watercolour
19 x 30 cm., 7½ x 11¾ in.
signed; inscribed with title and signed on the reverse.

Exhibited at the Old Watercolour Society in 1833.

item sold

Turner was sent to London at the age of fifteen to take up an apprenticeship under John Varley, and was elected a full member of the Old Watercolour Society in 1808. It was in this period that J.M.W.Turner rose to fame, and as a result the younger artist became known as ‘Turner of Oxford’. His own reputation firmly established, he returned to his uncle’s estate at Shipton-under-Cherwell in 1812 and began to build up his practice as a drawing master in Oxford. His range of subject matter was vast, and he travelled throughout the British Isles in search of subjects – from the Wye Valley to the Lake District, from Wales and the Hebrides to the Isle of Wight, and he was a loyal exhibitor at the Society of Painters in Watercolour, submitting a total of 455 pictures, including this one. Turner of Oxford was described as follows: ‘Worthy and dignified, looking like a parson of the old school, dressed in black and wearing a white tie, he lived a hum-drum life at his house, 16 John Street, near Worcester College, where he resided from 1833 till his death on 7th August 1862’ (quoted in Martin Hardie, ‘William Turner of Oxford’, Old Water-Colour Society’s Club 9 (1931-32).

Exhibition:

London, Society of Painters in Watercolour,1833, no. 255

William Turner of Oxford