Ships in a Breeze (Liber Studiorum, part II, plate 10)
Joseph Mallord William Turner|Charles Turner
February 20, 1808 · Etching and mezzotint; first state of five (Finberg) · Drawings and Prints
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 Charles Turner here added mezzotint to describe five fully rigged ships passing close to an anchored three-masted vessel as figures watch from a wooden pier. The image is based on a painting owned by the Earl of Egremeont, and the letter "M" in the upper margin indicates Turner's category of Marine landscape.
- Artist
- Joseph Mallord William Turner|Charles Turner
- Date
- February 20, 1808
- Medium
- Etching and mezzotint; first state of five (Finberg)
- Department
- Drawings and Prints
- Credit line
- Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1928
