Inverary Castle and Town, Scotland (Liber Studiorum, part XIII)

Inverary Castle and Town, Scotland (Liber Studiorum, part XIII)

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. Here we see his preliminary work on a plate that Charles Turner later completed in mezzotint. The image moves from fishing boats by a foreground shore marked by two tall, thin trees, back towards the Scottish town of Inverary, distinguished by its prominent castle. In the print's final state added tone evokes contrasting weather effects to bring the scene to life.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Inverary Castle and Town, Scotland (Liber Studiorum, part XIII)Inverary Castle and Town, Scotland (Liber Studiorum, part XIII)Inverary Castle and Town, Scotland (Liber Studiorum, part XIII)Inverary Castle and Town, Scotland (Liber Studiorum, part XIII)Inverary Castle and Town, Scotland (Liber Studiorum, part XIII)

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