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The Frontispiece to Liber Studiorum

A work made of mezzotint and etching in brown on ivory wove paper.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of mezzotint and etching in brown on ivory wove paper.

Date:

Published May 23, 1812

Artist:

Joseph Mallord William Turner (English, 1775-1851)
border engraved by J.C. Easling (British, active 19th century)

About this artwork

J. M. W. Turner’s paintings epitomized the sublime, a sense of awe-inspiring beauty beyond simple loveliness. His evocative etching and mezzotint print series, the Liber Studiorum (1807–19), was just as influential. Printed in sepia lines and tonal areas evoking Old Master drawing ink and modeling, Turner’s series of 71 prints is an extended ode to the landscape. The letters above each work designate the subject type, including architectural (A), pastoral (P) and elevated pastoral (EP), and historical (H), marine (M), and mountainous (M). Turner’s exhaustive categories inspired John Constable to produce a further-specialized mezzotint series of 22 English landscapes.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Prints and Drawings

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner

Title

The Frontispiece to Liber Studiorum

Place

England (Artist's nationality)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Published 1812

Medium

Mezzotint and etching in brown on ivory wove paper

Dimensions

Image: 18.9 × 26.7 cm (7 1/2 × 10 9/16 in.); Plate: 21.3 × 29.6 cm (8 7/16 × 11 11/16 in.); Sheet: 29.8 × 44 cm (11 3/4 × 17 3/8 in.)

Credit Line

The Joseph Brooks Fair Collection

Reference Number

1915.804

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/71636/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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