Apuleia in Search of Apuleius (unpublished plate, Liber Studiorum)

Joseph Mallord William Turner

1813–23 · Etching · Drawings and Prints

This is Turner's etched first stage of work on a print he intended to include in the series "Liber Studiorum" (Latin for Book of Studies), but never published. The composition derives from a premium-winning painting shown at the British Institution in 1814, now at the National Gallery, London. In the foreground, Apuleia, a figure Turner invented as the wife for a shepherd mentioned in Ovid's "Metamorphoses," unveils herself to a group of shepherdesses. The landscape is enlivened by a multi-arched classical bridge that spans a river near a temple, and the composition embodies Arcadian qualities associated with Claude. The finished plate was sold in 1873 with other unpublished Liber compositions, and subsequently printed and circulated.

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner

Date

1813–23

Medium

Etching

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of Theodore De Witt, 1917