Norham Castle at Dawn, 91x122 cm, c. 1845, Tate Gallery, London. This painting of Norham Castle at Dawn is Turner's most brilliant and abstract landscape. Here the painter uses watercolor techniques to paint an oil painting; it is pure and exquisite, possessing a rare ethereal quality akin to Chinese ink wash landscapes.

Norham Castle lies on the border between England and Scotland. This bright scenery of mountains and water was a favorite theme for Turner, who depicted this enchanting view multiple times in 1797, 1802, 1820, 1825, and 1831 (numerous watercolors and sketches). Among these, this work is the most refined, elusive, and emotional. Within the substantial rendering of blue-green and golden hues depicting the dawn where sky and water merge, with undulating blue hills in the center as the core, the emerging light above, and the symmetrical, continuous misty natural scenery on both sides, all forms and colors are liberated under a romantic sentiment. The suggestive natural scenery prevails over depiction, passionately revealing extraordinary inner perceptual feelings, becoming one of the finest paintings of the 19th century and pointing toward future paths in painting art.