Tur

Walton Ford, Tur, 2007, watercolor and gouache on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the American Art Forum and Nion T. McEvoy, 2008.4A-C, © 2007, Walton Ford
Copied Walton Ford, Tur, 2007, watercolor and gouache on paper, overall: 95 x 132 in. (241.3 x 335.3 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the American Art Forum and Nion T. McEvoy, 2008.4A-C, © 2007, Walton Ford

Artwork Details

Title
Tur
Artist
Date
2007
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
overall: 95 x 132 in. (241.3 x 335.3 cm)
Copyright
© 2007, Walton Ford
Credit Line
Gift of the American Art Forum and Nion T. McEvoy
Mediums
Mediums Description
watercolor and gouache on paper
Classifications
Highlights
Keywords
  • Animal — cattle
Object Number
2008.4A-C
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2008.4A-C

Artwork Description

Walton Ford's Tur is an allegory rendered in the style of nineteenth-century naturalists' illustrations. It centers on an aurochs, the huge ancestor of cattle that was hunted on royal Polish preserves until 1627, when the last of the species was killed. In Ford's symbolic painting, the aurochs stands on the edge of a dense forest, and human bones lay before him. These remains allude to the fate of trespassers on the royal lands who, like the aurochs, died at the hands of noblemen who controlled and protected their hunting grounds.
Publication Label

Walton Ford's large-scale watercolors combine the meticulous detail of naturalist drawings with all the narrative drama of a great film. Tur depicts the aurochs, a prehistoric bull that gave rise to modern day bison and cattle. The Latin inscription at the top left of the painting reads: "The Polish call me tur, the Germans call me aurox, and the ignorant call me bison."

Smithsonian American Art Museum: Commemorative Guide. Nashville, TN: Beckon Books, 2015.