River Wye, part X, plate 48 from "Liber Studiorum"

River Wye, part X, plate 48 from "Liber Studiorum"

Joseph Mallord William Turner

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Turner distilled his ideas about landscape In "Liber Studiorum" (Latin for Book of Studies), a series of seventy prints plus a frontispiece published between 1807 and 1819. To establish the compositions, he made brown watercolor drawings, then etched outlines onto copper plates. Professional engravers usually developed the tone under Turner's direction, and Annis here added mezzotint to evoke a peaceful evening on the River Wye with the sun settng behind Chepstow Castle (the latter also appears in "The Junction of the Severn and the Wye," no. 28 in the Liber). It is as though the artist decided to produce a perfect example of the Picturesque, a kind of landscape much debated in eighteenth-century Britain. Characteristic elements include the pleasing irregularity of the ruined castle over the looping river, and smudge of smoke produced by a charcoal burner, with placid cows and male swimmers adding notes of local interest. The letters "EP" in the upper margin likely stand for Elevated Pastoral and were applied by Turner to landscapes within the set that echo the Arcadian sensibility of Claude.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

River Wye, part X, plate 48 from "Liber Studiorum"River Wye, part X, plate 48 from "Liber Studiorum"River Wye, part X, plate 48 from "Liber Studiorum"River Wye, part X, plate 48 from "Liber Studiorum"River Wye, part X, plate 48 from "Liber Studiorum"

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.