The Road to Wittenham Clumps near Oxford

  • About the work
    Location
    Country: Other
    City: other locations abroad
    A lone figure walks along a path towards the gently undulating pastures of the Oxfordshire countryside that are bathed in warm rays of sunlight. Haystacks like small pyramids, dot the landscape in the distance. Alexander Mann’s painting depicts a view of Wittenham Clumps, a set of small grassy hills within the Thames Valley. Long renowned as a picturesque site, it has inspired painters and poets of different generations: the British painter Paul Nash (1889–1946) frequently painted in this area later in the twentieth century.
  • About the artist
    Alexander Mann was born in Glasgow; the son of a business man. Aged just ten he became a pupil of Robert Greenlees. He then studied at the Glasgow School of Art and Académie Julian, Paris, before entering the atelier of Carolus-Duran in 1881. He exhibited in Glasgow, London and Paris (1879-93). Mann remained in Paris for 15 years, frequently visiting Scotland, and spent periods in Venice and Morocco. He concentrated on landscapes but also painted genre scenes during the 1880s. He became the first Glasgow artist to receive an Honourable Mention at the Paris Salon (1884). He settled in Hagbourne, Berkshire, before moving to Streatham in 1896. Mann was elected a member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters in 1893. He died in London, aged 55.
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  • Details
    Title
    The Road to Wittenham Clumps near Oxford
    Date
    1901
    Medium
    Oil on canvas
    Dimensions
    height: 54.00 cm, width: 86.50 cm
    Acquisition
    Purchased from the Fine Art Society, April 1989
    Inscription
    br: Alexr. Mann / 1901
    Provenance
    With the Fine Art Society; from whom purchased in April 1989
    GAC number
    16693