Oil paint on canvas
Oxfordshire
Tate Collection
Works with images
Joseph Mallord William Turner
Turner Bequest
Oil paintings
Collection
Turner owned by Tate
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/joseph-mallord-william-turner-558" aria-label="More by Joseph Mallord William Turner" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Joseph Mallord William Turner</a>
Abingdon
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Abingdon, St Helen’s Church
adults
agriculture and fishing
animals: mammals
architecture
boat, sailing
bridge
bridges and viaducts
cart
church
cow
Dorchester
England
England, South East
England, Southern
features
herdsman / herdswoman
herdsman / herdswoman, cowherd
landscape
man
Oxfordshire
people
places
religious
river
River Thames
society
spire
sunshine
transport: land
transport: water
UK cities, towns and villages
UK counties
UK countries and regions
UK natural features
water: inland
weather
wooded
work and occupations
<p>In this painting Turner shows rural productivity and a landscape rich with history, united by a glowing, diffuse light. A similar combination is used in Ploughing up Turnips, shown to the right. It has been suggested that the two pictures were painted to complement each other.</p><p>This painting is probably the view of Dorchester shown at Turner’s Gallery in 1810. However, the spire of St Helen’s Church in the historic market town of Abingdon is visible over the treetops, even though it was in fact two miles away.</p><p><em>Gallery label, September 2004</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
28 May 2007 – 27 July 2009
2009-07-27
28 May 2007
2007-05-28
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2007-05-28
A Turner Gallery
Collection based display
21 September 2009 – 19 September 2010
2010-09-19
21 September 2009 – 24 January 2010
2010-01-24
2009-09-21
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
22 February 2010 – 23 May 2010
2010-05-23
2010-02-22
Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais (Paris, France)
21 June 2010 – 19 September 2010
2010-09-19
2010-06-21
Museo Nacional del Prado (Madrid, Spain)
2009-09-21
Turner and the Masters
Exhibition
22 February 2010 – 19 September 2010
2010-09-19
21 September 2009 – 3 January 2010
2010-01-03
2009-09-21
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
22 February 2010 – 23 May 2010
2010-05-23
2010-02-22
Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais (Paris, France)
21 June 2010 – 19 September 2010
2010-09-19
2010-06-21
Museo Nacional del Prado (Madrid, Spain)
2010-02-22
Turner and the Masters
Loan-out
11 September 2011 – 29 January 2012
2012-01-29
11 September 2011 – 29 January 2012
2012-01-29
2011-09-11
Von der Heydt Museum (Wuppertal, Germany)
2011-09-11
Alfred Sisley
Loan-out
14 April 2012 – 8 March 2020
2020-03-08
14 April 2012 – 8 March 2020
2020-03-08
2012-04-14
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2012-04-14
Turner as a British Artist
Collection based display
3 October 2021 – 8 May 2022
2022-05-08
3 October 2021 – 8 May 2022
2022-05-08
2021-10-03
Dordrechts Museum (Dordrecht, Netherlands)
2021-10-03
In the light of Cuyp, Aelbert Cuyp & Gainsborough, Constable, Turner
Loan-out
Abingdon
support: 1016 × 1302 mm
frame: 1380 × 1670 × 160 mm
Accepted by the nation as part of the <a href="/search?gid=999999781" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Turner Bequest</a> 1856
<div class="pbodytext">
<span class="text19">In this <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> Turner shows rural productivity and a      <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/l/landscape" title="Glossary definition for 'Landscape'"><span>landscape</span></a> rich with </span><span class="text0">history, united by a      glowing, diffuse light. A similar combination is used in </span><span class="text20">Ploughing</span><span class="text18"> up Turnip</span><span class="text0">s, shown to the right. It has been </span><span class="text19">suggested      that the two pictures were painted to complement each other.</span><span class="text0">
<br/> </span>
</div>
<div class="para11">
<span class="text0">
<br/> </span>
</div>
<div class="pbodytext">
<span class="text19">This painting is probably the view of Dorchester shown      at Turner’s Gallery  in 1810. However, the spire of St Helen’s      Church in the historic market town of Abingdon is visible over the      treetops, </span><span class="text17">even though it was in fact two miles      away. </span>
</div>

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2004-09-08T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>107. </b>[<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-abingdon-n00485" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00485</span></a>]<b> Dorchester Mead, Oxfordshire Exh. 1810</b>
<br/>
<br/>THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON (485)
<br/>Canvas, 40×51 1/4 (101·5×130)
<br/><b>Coll.</b> George Hibbert, sold Christie's 13 June 1829 (24) for £120.15.0 bought Turner; Turner Bequest (70, ‘Abingdon’ 4'3 1/2" × 3'4 1/2"); transferred to the Tate Gallery 1910.
<br/><b>Exh.</b> Turner's gallery 1810 (12); Tate Gallery 1931 (42); British Council tour, Cologne (56, repr.), Rome (57, repr.) and Warsaw (56, repr.) 1966–7; Hague (45, repr.) and Tate Gallery (43, repr.) 1970–71; R.A. 1974–5 (157).
<br/><b>Lit.</b> Ruskin 1857 (1903–12, xiii, pp. 120–21); Thornbury 1862, i, p. 293; 1877, p. 430; Armstrong 1902, p. 217; Davies 1946, p. 187; Clare 1951, pp. 43–5, repr. in colour p. 17; H.F. Finberg 1951, pp. 384, 386; Finberg 1961, pp. 167, 171, 472 no. 154, 513 no. 157i; Rothenstein and Butlin 1964, p. 91, pl. 47; Lindsay 1966, p. 107; Gage 1969, p. 89.
<br/>
<br/>Catalogued in the George Hibbert sale at Christie's on 13 June 1829 (24) as ‘Abingdon, taken from the River— Cattle cooling themselves, Group of Lighters in half-distance, figures loading a Timber Waggon in right Bank, Sultry Sun in Mist’, and listed in the schedule of the Turner Bequest as ‘Abingdon’, this picture nevertheless seems to be the otherwise lost ‘Dorchester Mead’ exhibited by Turner in his own gallery in 1810. The title is somewhat misleading in that Dorchester Mead is some two miles from Abingdon church, the spire of which is seen in the distance, but not much more perverse than the full title of the picture to which it may well have been intended as the companion, <i>Slough</i>, exhibited the year before (No. 89 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-ploughing-up-turnips-near-slough-windsor-n00486" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00486</span></a>]).
<br/>
<br/>There are related <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawings</span></a> in the ‘Hesperides (I)’ and ‘(2)’ sketchbooks (XCIII-21 <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/r/recto-verso" title="Glossary definition for 'Recto / Verso'"><span>verso</span></a>, and XCIV-4 verso and, less close, 40 verso).</p>
<p>
<br/><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, <i>The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner</i>, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-22T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
Abingdon, St Helen’s Church adults agriculture and fishing animals: mammals architecture boat, sailing bridge bridges and viaducts cart church cow Dorchester England England, South East England, Southern features herdsman / herdswoman herdsman / herdswoman, cowherd landscape man Oxfordshire people places religious river River Thames society spire sunshine transport: land transport: water UK cities, towns and villages UK counties UK countries and regions UK natural features water: inland weather wooded work and occupations