A View from inside Brazen Nose College Quadrangle, Oxford
A View from inside Brazen Nose College Quadrangle, Oxford
Coloured engraving . In the quadrangle of Brazen Nose College (now known as Brasenose College) stands a statue of â€Samson Slaying a Philistine’. Beside it, a grass roller and scythe have been temporarily abandoned by the gardener, who leans on a spade and chats to an academic. A copy of Flemish sculptor Giambologna's group statue of â€Samson Slaying a Philistine’ was purchased by Brasenose College in 1728 and transported to Oxford by barge. It remained in the quadrangle until 1881.
In 1799 Turner accepted a modest fee of 10 guineas per drawing from the Oxford University Press in return for the prestigious commission to provide watercolours to be engraved as the headpieces of the annual â€Oxford Almanack’ (published 1799–11). He provided ten works in total and this example was engraved for the â€Almanack’ of 1805. The original watercolour by Turner, from which James Basire I engraved the image, was painted in 1803–04 and is now in the collection of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.
