The Bridge and Goats (Liber Studiorum, part IX, plate 43)

Joseph Mallord William Turner|Frederick Christian Lewis, Senior|Joseph Mallord William Turner

April 23, 1812 · Etching, aquatint 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 Lewis here added mezzotint and aquatint to evoke a soft late afternoon sun bathing goat herders moving along a wallled road. In the midde distance, a high arched bridge spans a steep gully, with a castle at left looking over a distant plain. 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|Frederick Christian Lewis, Senior|Joseph Mallord William Turner

Date

April 23, 1812

Medium

Etching, aquatint and mezzotint; first state of five (Finberg)

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1928