The Leader Sea Piece (Liber Studiorum, part IV, plate 20)

Charles Turner|Joseph Mallord William Turner

March 29, 1809 · Etching and mezzotint; first state of three · 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 a nautical scene near the Nore, a sandbank at the confluence of the Thames Estuary and North Sea. An achored man-of-war guards the coast as a closer, smaller, boat tacks into the stiff breeze. The print is also known as "The Guard-ship at the Nore," and the letter "M" in the upper margin indicates Turner's category of Marine landscape.

Artist

Charles Turner|Joseph Mallord William Turner

Date

March 29, 1809

Medium

Etching and mezzotint; first state of three

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1928