JMW Turner

JMW Turner

Acknowledged as one of the greatest landscape artists of all time, Turner (1775–1851) knew Oxford extremely well and, from childhood, made numerous drawings of the streets and colleges and the picturesque views surrounding the city. One his most important early commissions was for two watercolours to be engraved for the Oxford Almanack, the annual calendar published by the University Press. They were so successful that he eventually completed ten watercolours between 1798 and 1804, and later painted two oils for the local print-seller and frame-maker, James Wyatt, including the celebrated High Street, Oxford (1810).