Martello Towers near Bexhill, Sussex (Liber Studiorum, part VII, plate 34)

Joseph Mallord William Turner|William Say|Joseph Mallord William Turner

June 1811 · Etching and mezzotint; first state of four (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 Say here added mezzotint to describe a stretch of England's south coast, with a road below cliffs receding toward forts built to defend against a feared Napoleonic invasion. A distant storm hints at that threat as, in the foreground, a man and woman lead a loaded donkey, and two hussars follow on horseback. The letter "M" in the upper margin indicates Turner's category of Marine landscape.

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner|William Say|Joseph Mallord William Turner

Date

June 1811

Medium

Etching and mezzotint; first state of four (Finberg)

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1928