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View of Oxford from Cowley Fields (originally 'from Old Boar's Hill')

Maker

(artist)
1784-1849

Title

View of Oxford from Cowley Fields (originally 'from Old Boar's Hill')

Date of Production

(circa) 1840

Medium

graphite, watercolour and bodycolour with scratching out on wove paper

Dimensions

Height: 28.5 cm
Width: 47 cm

Accession Number

D.1967.WS.104

Mode of Acquisition

William Wycliffe Spooner, bequest, 1967

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords



Label Text

This view of Oxford is seen from Cowley Fields to the south east and not from Old Boar’s Hill, as originally thought. Typically, De Wint has chosen to emphasise the labour in the fields and not the city itself. Whether or not the watercolour was completed on the spot, De Wint has achieved a remarkably spontaneous effect with broad brush strokes and limited range of colours. His ability to capture the atmosphere of the countryside under the sultry skies of an English summer was much admired.

Provenance

Malcolm McDonald; Gilbert Davis (1899-1983); Horace Bernard Milling (1898-1954); by descent to his widow, Mrs Mary Spooner and her second husband, Mr William Wycliffe Spooner, Ilkley (1882-1967); Spooner Bequest 1967

Exhibition History

British Watercolours from the Spooner Collection, Huntington Museum and Art Gallery, Los Angeles, 12/02/2005-15/05/2005

British Watercolours from the Spooner Collection, Huntington Museum of Art, Los Angeles, 12/02/2005-15/05/2005; Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere, 18/07/2005-23/10/2005; Hermitage Rooms, Somerset House, London, 16/11/2005-12/02/2006

The Northern Landscape: Flemish, Dutch and British Drawings from the Courtauld Collections, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 03/09/1986-30/11/1986; The Drawing Center, New York, 08/04/1986-26/07/1986 ...More

English Landscape Drawings and Watercolours, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 01/06/1979-01/09/1979

Exhibition of Drawings and Watercolours from the Spooner and Witt Collections, Australia, New Zealand, 1976-78

The William Spooner Collection and Bequest, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 1974

English Watercolours: The Spooner Collection and Bequest, City Art Gallery, Bristol, 11/05/1973-02/06/1973

English Landscape Drawings [catalogue not found], Rye Art Gallery, England, 1971

Masters of the Watercolour - Watercolours from the Spooner
Collection
, Holburne Museum of Art, Bath, 1969

The William Spooner Collection and Bequest, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 01/04/1968-01/07/1968 ...Less

Literature

John Lord, ed., Peter DeWint 1784-1849: 'For the common observer of life and nature', Aldershot: Lund Humphries, 2007
p. 34
fig. vii on p. 35

The Spooner Collection of British Watercolours, Courtauld Institute Galleries; Huntington Library; Wordsworth Trust, 2005-06
cat. no. 68
ill. on p. 209

The Northern Landscape: Flemish, Dutch and British Drawings from the Courtauld Collections, Courtauld Gallery, London, 1986
cat. no. 120
ill. on p. 263 ...More

English Landscape Drawings and Watercolours, Courtauld Gallery, London, 1979
cat. no. 59
pl. IV

Exhibition of Drawings and Watercolours from the Spooner and Witt Collections, Australia, New Zealand, 1976 - 1978
cat. no. 48

The William Spooner Collection and Bequest, Courtauld Gallery, London, 1974
cat. no. 51
pl. VII

English Watercolours: The Spooner Collection and Bequest, City Art Gallery, Bristol, 1973
cat. no. 68

Masters of the Watercolour - Watercolours from the Spooner Collection, Holburne Museum of Art, Bath, 1969
cat. no. 84

The William Spooner Collection and Bequest, Courtauld Gallery, London, 1968
cat. no. 72 ...Less

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: none.

Inscription: Verso: upper left corner, graphite: "50"; upper centre edge, both in graphite: "No. 1-" and "35"; also at upper centre edge, brown ink: "6415" [the "5" written over a "6" - checked under microscope); centre, graphite: "a".

Collector's mark: none.

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