Fifth Plague of Egypt (Liber Studiorum, part III, plate 16)

Joseph Mallord William Turner

1808 · Etching only; before 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. Here we see his preliminary work on a plate that Charles Turner later completed using mezzotint. The subject comes from "Exodus" 9, a chapter that describes three of the ten plagues involked by Moses to persuade Egypt's pharoah to release the Hebrews from bondage. Curiously, the title mentions the fifth plague, directed against domestic animals, but the print focuses on the seventh, an apocalypic storm of hail and fire. The latter effects have yet to be developed, but the prophet stands at right with arms raised towards the pyramids. Published states of the print include the letter "H" in the upper margin to indicate Turner's category of Historical landscape.

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner

Date

1808

Medium

Etching only; before first state of three

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1954