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Creator:
Etched by Joseph Mallord William Turner, 1775–1851
Engraved by Thomas Goff Lupton, 1791–1873
after Joseph Mallord William Turner, 1775–1851
Title:
Ben Arthur, Scotland
Part Of:

Collective Title: Liber Studiorum

Date:
1819
Materials & Techniques:
Etching and mezzotint, printed in brown ink; first published state on medium, slightly textured, cream laid paper
Dimensions:
Sheet: 11 × 16 1/4 inches (27.9 × 41.3 cm), Plate: 8 1/4 × 11 3/8 inches (21 × 28.9 cm), Image: 7 1/8 × 10 1/2 inches (18.1 × 26.7 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:

Inscribed in graphite, lower left: "69. I"; inscribed on verso in graphite, lower left: "69. I."; lower center: "Cotswold Gallery 1924, ex. G.E.Blood"

Collector’s mark: G. E. Blood (Lugt 265c)

Lettered above image: "M"; below image: "Drawn. & Etched by I.M.W. Turner Esq. R.A.P.P. | Engraved by T. Lupton | BEN ARTHUR. SCOTLAND | London. Pub. Jan.1. 1819. by I.M.W. Turner, Queen Anne Str West"

Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1977.14.8189
Classification:
Prints
Collection:
Prints and Drawings
Access:
Accessible in the Study Room [Request]
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:30614
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According to Turner, all landscapes belong to one of six fundamental categories: Architectural, Historical, Marine, Mountainous, Pastoral, and Elevated Pastoral. These prints are part of a systematic publication, the Liber Studiorum (“Book of Studies”), containing examples from each of these categories. This work provides further testimony to the enduring influence of Claude Lorrain. Claude made sepia ink and wash drawings to record all his authentic compositions and brought them together to form his celebrated Liber Veritatis (“Book of Truth”). These drawings came to be seen as the epitome of the art of landscape and were later reproduced as fine mezzotints. They inspired Turner to make his own, even more ambitious equivalents. Though imitating the format and sepia coloring of Claude’s drawings, Turner’s plates were intended not as a record of his paintings but to illustrate his own original theory of landscape art. Although never completely finished, the Liber Studiorum is among the artist’s most personal and pioneering contributions to the practice of printmaking.

Gallery label for J. M. W. Turner: Romance and Reality (Yale Center for British Art, March - 29, 2025 - July 27, 2025)

The Romantic Landscape Prints - The Chiaroscuro of Nature (Yale Center for British Art, 2002-09-25 - 2002-12-29) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Translations - Turner and Printmaking (Yale Center for British Art, 1993-09-29 - 1993-12-05) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Fairest Isle - The Appreciation of British Scenery 1750-1850 (Yale Center for British Art, 1989-04-12 - 1989-06-25) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Turner and the Sublime (British Museum, 1981-05-15 - 1981-09-20) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Turner and the Sublime (Yale Center for British Art, 1981-02-11 - 1981-04-19) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Turner and the Sublime (Art Gallery of Ontario, 1980-11-01 - 1981-01-04) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Timothy J. Barringer, Unto this last : two hundred years of John Ruskin, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 2019, p. 187, fig. 93, NJ18.R895 .B37 2019 (LC) Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]

Eric M. Lee, Translations : Turner and printmaking, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1993, p. 16, no. 30, NJ18 .T85 L44 1993 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Duncan Robinson, Fairest isle : the appreciation of British scenery, 1750-1850, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1989, p. 19, no. 153, ND1354.4 F35 (YCBA) [YCBA]


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