Water Cress Gatherers, Rails Head Ferry Bridge, Twickenham (Liber Studiorum, part XIII, plate 62)

Joseph Mallord William Turner|Thomas Goff Lupton|Joseph Mallord William Turner

January 1, 1819 · Etching and mezzotint; second 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 Lupton here added mezzotint to describe a a rural scene where awoman picks cress in a stream near two children. At the end of bridge, above, figures with baskets are bathed in a burst of bright sunlight, as a horse-drawn gig moves away down a road through the rain. The changeable weather and shifting light, characterisitic of an English summer, are Turner's ture subject, and the letter "P" in the plate indicates his category of Pastoral landscape.

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner|Thomas Goff Lupton|Joseph Mallord William Turner

Date

January 1, 1819

Medium

Etching and mezzotint; second state of three

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1928