Local Artists
Local Artists
The area has also attracted some important names in English landscape painting.
J.M.W. Turner
One of the earliest pictures of the Wittenham Clumps is a pencil sketch made by the 30 year old J.M.W. Turner during his 1805 sketching tour along the Thames valley. The sketch shows Shillingford Bridge with the Clumps in the background, both clearly capped by low trees.
Maria Tubb
A more detailed drawing was made by Maria Tubb, the cousin of Joseph Tubb, in 1831. Her father James was a friend of William Cobbett (1763-1835) who championed the virtues of traditional rural life in the face of industrial change. By this date the trees on the Clumps were mature.
The area has also attracted some important names in English landscape painting:
- Alfred Downing Fripp (1822-1895) has left superb formal watercolours and atmospheric chalk sketches of the hills and their settings.
- George Vicat Cole (1833-1893) painted Day's Lock and the Clumps in 1885, a scene that was also photographed in the same year by the Oxford photographer Henry Taunt (1842-1922).
- George Warner Allen (1916-1988) a resident of the nearby village of Brightwell-cum-Sotwell, was inspired by the Clumps to paint two canvases (both now in the Tate collection) showing imaginary picnic scenes.
Henry Taunt's Photos of Little Wittenham
Wittenham Clumps, Henry Taunt, 1910.
Copyright Oxfordshire County Council Photographic Archive
Taunt's many other local photos can be seen on:
http://viewfinder.English-heritage.org.uk
Present Day Artists
Present-day artists and photographers continue to gain inspiration from the local landscape. See examples at:
