Dawn in the Valley

William Turner of Oxford

National Gallery of Art

This painting shows a landscape with rolling green hills and valleys viewed from an elevated vantage point. The horizon line is high in the painting, and in the blue sky above it the sun is breaking through gray clouds, casting pale yellow beams of light on the distant, hazy hills. Closer to us, on the left, a flock of white sheep grazes on a grassy slope with trees. The far-left edge of the painting is framed by a tall tree. On the right, a distant person can be seen walking alongside three cows. A river runs through the scene, and between the fields and trees, small gray buildings can be seen, as well as a few plumes of gray smoke. The color palette of the landscape mainly consists of greens and dark blues.