Colin Harrison is senior curator of European art at the Ashmolean

Long before Nikolaus Pevsner wrote that “The High Street is one of the world’s great streets”, visitors to Oxford had been seduced by its charms.

I remember when I was an undergraduate at Oriel, more than 30 years ago, it was still possible to get up early on a summer’s morning, before the buses and other traffic began to clog up the artery, and wander up and down in the middle of the road, admiring the mellow stone and the varied yet harmonious architecture, which covered many centuries as one moved from Magdalen Bridge to Carfax Tower.

Later, I became aware of Wordsworth’s poem in praise of “the stream-like windings of that glorious street”, and, later still, to the large engraving after Turner’s oil painting.

The original, of The High Street, Oxford, came on long-term loan to the Ashmolean in 1997, a few years after I had joined the staff as a curator.

It was owned by a well-known local collector, who had inherited it from his father, and who always said that it belonged in the Ashmolean.

We are delighted that his heirs have offered it in lieu of inheritance tax, even though it is so valuable that it is worth much more than the tax bill, so the Ashmolean needed to make up the difference.

Turner’s view of the High Street, Oxford was painted in the winter of 1809-10 for the Oxford framemaker and printseller who was also an exact contemporary of Turner’s, James Wyatt. He occupied the double-fronted shop in the High that is now Hobbs, and served for a period as Mayor.

Originally, Wyatt had thought of commissioning a large watercolour, but he eventually decided on an oil half Turner’s normal size, and took a great deal of interest in the picture as it progressed. In particular, he helped with troublesome architectural details.

Of course, Turner had been familiar with the buildings of Oxford since childhood, when he stayed with relations in the village of Sunningwell. But he particularly wanted everything to be accurate, especially since the detail would be even more visible in the prints that Wyatt intended to sell in his shop.

Turner was friendly with both Town and Gown, and took great pains to include representatives of both in the figures strolling in the High. The women were added for the sake of colour, as was the basket of spilt oranges on the left.

The perspective is skilfully manipulated, to include all three churches – when the local photographer David Fisher tried to replicate the view, he had to put several shots together.

Two-hundred-and-five years after the picture was first shown in public, in Wyatt’s shop at 115 High Street, the scene seems to have changed comparatively little.

True, some of the buildings have been replaced, and the famous cherry tree in front of the University Church had not been planted in Turner’s day.

It is heartening to think that Turner would have recognised the High in its present form, and that he, like me, would have enjoyed the shadows on the stone in early morning or late evening.

When we held an exhibition of ‘Turner’s Oxford’ in the Ashmolean in 2000, I had great fun finding his precise viewpoints, especially for the distant views on the hills to the south and west.

But it was clear that, for Turner, the High Street was his favourite subject, and the oil painting perfectly reflects his long fascination with our beautiful city.

In June, the Ashmolean launched a public campaign to raise the funds to acquire the picture. We received major support from the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Art Fund and our Friends and Patrons. Most remarkable of all, members of the public and visitors to the museum have sent in over £60,000 in more than 800 separate donations, which has helped us reach the target in just four weeks.

We have been overwhelmed by public support. The painting clearly has huge significance for the local community.

Now we are celebrating the success of the campaign by putting 12 copies of the painting in prominent sites around town to inspire people to send in their own view of Oxford for our photography competition, My Oxford View. Visit ashmolean.org/turner for more information.