St. Catharine's Hill near Guilford (Liber Studiorum, part VII)

Joseph Mallord William Turner|J. C. Easling|Joseph Mallord William Turner

June 1811 · 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 Easling here added mezzotint to describe a peaceful road that recedes toward a ruined chapel on a hill, as trees at left cast late afternoon shadows and horses enter a farmyard. 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.

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner|J. C. Easling|Joseph Mallord William Turner

Date

June 1811

Medium

Etching and mezzotint; first state of three

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1928