William Thomas Turman (1867-1960)
October in Vigo County (1934)
Oil on Canvas
24 x 36 inches
Signed Lower Right
Recently cleaned; recent frame
This painting was featured in our weekly newsletter on 1/6/2023.
“William Turman was a native of tiny Graysville, IN and received a bachelors degree from Union Christian College in equally tiny Merom, IN (both south of Terre Haute near the Illinois border). He went on to study at the Chicago Art Institute and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (under Daniel Garber). He joined the art faculty at Indiana State Teachers College (now Indiana State University) in 1894 ultimately becoming faculty chair by the time he departed in 1934.
He was then director of Swope Gallery (now Swope Art Museum) from 1941 through 1957. He spent his remaining few years in California with his daughter.
Despite a long life and his entire adult existence involving painting, his works are somewhat rare. Swope has several pieces but I’ve seen relatively few on the market over our years as a gallery. Today’s work, October in Vigo County (our title) features the gently rolling hills outside Terre Haute in late October. Turman apparently enjoyed painting these long vistas in western Indiana — we’ve seen this look out of him a few times. Nicely executed, signed and dated (down to the day — 10/29/34) and recently conserved. A nice example."
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