The High by J. M. W. Turner
This painting by J. M. W. Turner shows the High Street with University College on the left, the Warden’s house of All Souls College on the right, and Carfax in the distance.
On the left (beyond the boys picking up spilt oranges) are workmen who appear to be pulling down Deep Hall, where the scientist Robert Boyle lived between 1655 and 1668: a plaque on the western side of University College marks the site. This painting dates from 1809/10.
The tower of Carfax Church is much the same as today, but the rest of the medieval church (demolished in 1820) can be seen in front of it. To the east of the church are the eight shops at 24–31 High Street that were demolished to make way for Brasenose's new buildings of 1887 and 1911.
The similar view below was photographed on 31 March 2020:
The original painting was commissioned by James Wyatt along with another painting by Turner of “Oxford from the Abingdon Road” (see print, engraved in 1812 by Middiman, Pye, and Heath) with a view to having them engraved so that he could sell them as prints at his shop at 115 High Street. Jackson’s Oxford Journal on 31 March 1810 reported:
James Wyatt, Carver, Gilder, and Picture-Frame Maker, High-Street, Oxford, respectfully informs the Noblemen and Gentlemen of the University, and the Public, that the Picture of the HIGH-STREET, from the Pencil of that Eminent Artist, Joseph Mallord William Turner Esq., R.A. Professor of Perspective to the Royal Academy, is arrived; and that he purposes to exhibit it in his shop, for the inspection of the Subscribers and those Gentlemen who will do him the honour to call at his house, till the 10th of April, after which time it will be necessary to put it into the hands of the Engravers, Messrs. Middiman and Pye, who have engaged to execute it, in the Line Manner, and in their best style. Price to Subscribers £1 11s. 6d. Proof Impressions (of which only fifty will be taken off) £3 3s.
W. G. Rawlinson, The Engraved Work of J. M. W. Turner (1908) states that Turner painted this from a post-chaise anchored just below the entrance of The Queen's College in the High Street, and stayed with Wyatt while he was working on it. He adds:
Not only does he discuss [in his letters] with Wyatt the scheme of composition, the arrangement of the buildings, and even the correctness of the dress of the academical figures, but he goes into the questions of the prospectus, the time at which it should be issued, the form in which subscriptions should be solicited, the cost of printing the impressions, the number of proofs to be taken, the necessity that each should be numbered, and many other matters, all in the most practical and business-like spirit.
The original painting is now part of the Loyd Collection and is on long-term loan to the Ashmolean Museum.
Painting of the High in 1838 by Joseph Murray Ince
