Dawn in the Valley

1832

William Turner of Oxford

Associated Names
William Turner of Oxford

Artist, British, 1789 - 1862

This painting shows a landscape with rolling green hills and valleys viewed from an elevated vantage point. The horizon line is high in the painting, and in the blue sky above it the sun is breaking through gray clouds, casting pale yellow beams of light on the distant, hazy hills. Closer to us, on the left, a flock of white sheep grazes on a grassy slope with trees. The far-left edge of the painting is framed by a tall tree. On the right, a distant person can be seen walking alongside three cows. A river runs through the scene, and between the fields and trees, small gray buildings can be seen, as well as a few plumes of gray smoke. The color palette of the landscape mainly consists of greens and dark blues.

Media Options

This object’s media is free and in the public domain. Read our full Open Access policy for images.

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    watercolor with scratching out and gum arabic on wove paper

  • Credit Line

    Florian Carr Fund

  • Dimensions

    overall: 74.93 × 108.59 cm (29 1/2 × 42 3/4 in.)

  • Accession Number

    2014.34.1


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Possibly Lord Rolle (who purchased a watercolor of this subject from the exhibition of the London Society of Painters in Water-Colours in 1832); private collection, Surrey, to 1997; (Leger Galleries, London); private collection, U.K.; private collection, USA, to 2014; (Lowell Libson, London); NGA purchase in 2014.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1832

  • (Possibly) London Society of Painters in Water-Colours, 1832, no. 115 (Near Lustleigh Cleeve, on the River Teign, Devonshire, Dartmoor in the distance).

1998

  • Annual Exhibition of Watercolours and Drawings. Spink-Leger, London, 1998, no. 57 (color).

2014

  • The Color of Nature: Recent Acquisitions of Landscape Watercolors. NGA, Washington, July-September 2014 (no catalogue).

  • The Color of Nature: Recent Acquisitions of Landscape Watercolors, NGA, 2014.

2023

  • Drawing in Britain, 1700 - 1900: New Additions to the Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 2023.

Bibliography

2014

  • Robison, Andrew. "Gifts and Acquisitons: William Turner of Oxford, Dawn in the Valleys of Devon." National Gallery of Art Bulletin no. 51 (Fall 2014): 20-21, repro.

Wikidata ID

Q64639757

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