Mill Near the Grand Chartreuse, Dauphiny (Liber Studiorum, part XI, plate 54)

Joseph Mallord William Turner|Henry Edward Dawe

January 1, 1816 · Etching and mezzotint; first state of four · 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 usually etched the design onto a copper plate. In this case, Dawe is believed to have carried out that first step and then developed the tone with mezzotint, under Turner's direction. The artist had toured the mountains above Grenoble, France in 1802, and used sketches from that tour to develop this dramatic image of a narrow gorge, framed by cliffs and trees. At center, a thin wooden bridge spans the stream near a mill, and the letter "M" in the upper margin indicates Turner's category of Mountainous landscape.

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner|Henry Edward Dawe

Date

January 1, 1816

Medium

Etching and mezzotint; first state of four

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1928