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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Watercolours of Oxford and the Home Counties 1791–3

Turner Bequest XIV B, C, XV E, XVII A, XVII I–K, XXIII E
The technique of these watercolours, especially as regards the treatment of architecture, seems to have been influenced by Turner’s study of the work of Michael ‘Angelo’ Rooker (1746–1801), especially perhaps his copying of details from Rooker’s exhibited view of Battle Abbey at the Royal Academy’s exhibition of 1792 (Tate D00193, D00192; Turner Bequest XVII Q, R). Turner may have gained personal knowledge of Rooker as a fellow scene-painter while he as working at the Pantheon Oxford Street (see under Tate D00121; Turner Bequest IX A). As with the pencil drawings discussed elsewhere in this 1791–3 section of the catalogue, there is appreciable technical development, but a precise chronology is difficult to determine.

Andrew Wilton
April 2012

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How to cite

Andrew Wilton, ‘Watercolours of Oxford and the Home Counties 1791–3’, subset, 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/watercolours-of-oxford-and-the-home-counties-r1140284, accessed 29 March 2024.