Mr. Vokins

active 1892

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A hunting party with eight men mostly on horseback and nine dogs gather around a fox being attacked by two dogs in this horizontal landscape painting. The men wear or hold black caps and have jackets in cardinal red or parchment white, and one is in teal blue. The horses are silvery white, chestnut brown, or black. At the center, near the fox, one man dismounts, and another stands to our right of the group. The hounds are white with black and tan spots, and they rush toward the rust-brown fox. The hunters and dogs form a loose line across a grassy area, which is backed with a steeply rising but low hill, topped by trees with feathery canopies. The grass and leaves are painted in tones of sage green and harvest gold. A smudge of brick red in a crevice of the hill could be a person watching from the shadows. One rider on a white horse gives chase in the distance to our left, and the land dips down and back to row of houses along the crest of a rolling hill. Thin screens of white and pale gray clouds float across a pale blue sky above.
George Morland, The Death of the Fox, c. 1791/1794, oil on canvas, Widener Collection, 1942.9.43

The Death of the Fox

George Morland · c. 1791/1794 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1942.9.43

We look down onto a grass-topped promontory that gives way to a vast, hazy river valley in this horizontal watercolor. A dozen men, women, children, and babies rest in small groups or work near grapevines to our right on the promontory. They all have pale, peachy skin and wear garments in off white, royal blue, pink, beige, or gray. Rakes, barrels, cloth, and other equipment are piled to our left. The land dips steeply down beyond the pile to a slender, tall white tower. Opposite it, to our right, a grove of tall, spindly trees partially hides a brown stone, crenelated tower. The land drops steeply down from there to a deep, wide river valley. Flanking the waterway, mounded hills mottled with harvest yellow, laurel green, and pinkish-beige lighten to icy blue in the distance. Buildings tucked among the hills and ships on the river are suggested with indistinct strokes or scratches on the paper, and a few tufts of smoke rising from chimneys or smokestacks. The horizon comes two thirds of the way up the composition. A white glow across the center of the sky deepens to lapis blue at the edges. The artist signed and dated the lower right corner, “JMWT 1840.”
Joseph Mallord William Turner, Oberwesel, 1840, watercolor and gouache over graphite with scratching-out, Paul Mellon Fund, 2007.77.1

Oberwesel

Joseph Mallord William Turner · 1840 · watercolor and gouache over graphite with scratching-out ·  Accession ID  2007.77.1

Bibliography

1967

  • Agnew, Geoffrey. Agnew's 1817-1967. London, 1967.