Print made by Joseph Mallord William Turner, 1775–1851, Britishafter Joseph Mallord William Turner, 1775–1851, British
Title:
Aesacus and Hesperie
Date:
1819
Materials & Techniques:
Etching and mezzotint, printed in brown ink on medium, slightly textured, cream laid paper
Dimensions:
Sheet: 7 × 10 1/4 inches (17.8 × 26 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:
Inscribed on mount in graphite, lower left: "66"; lower right: "6th State"; inscribed on verso of mount in graphite, lower left: "Drawn Etched & Engraved by J.M.W Turner | Jan 1 1819"; lower center: "Aesacus & Hesperie"; lower right: "(A. J. Finberg)"
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1977.14.13979
Classification:
Prints
Collection:
Prints and Drawings
Subject Terms:
Aesacus is changed into a diving bird while pursuing the nymph Hesperia (or Asterope), who is bitten by a snake | woods | tree | pool | grooming | literary theme | religious and mythological subject | landscape | nymph | rock | water | riverbank | river | watching | spying | sunlight | hill | Metamorphoses
Currently On View:
Not on view
Publications:
Charlotte Gould, British art and the environment : changes, challenges, and responses since the Industrial Revolution, New York, 2022, p. 190, fig. 11.2, N8217.E28 B75 2022 (YCBA)
Gallery Label:
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)