Solway Moss (Liber Studiorum, part XI, plate 52)

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

January 1, 1816 · Etching and mezzotint; fifth 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 Lupton here added mezzotint to describe a broad estuary near the English-Scottish border. As cattle are driven across at low tide, smoke rises from low hills in the right distance, and storm clouds move across the sky. The print is lettered "P" in the upper margin, indicating Turner's category of Pastoral landscape.

Artist

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

Date

January 1, 1816

Medium

Etching and mezzotint; fifth state of five (Finberg)

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of Edwin De T. Bechtel, 1951