Winchelsea Sussex, part ViII, plate 42 from "Liber Studiorum"

Designed and etched by Joseph Mallord William Turner British
Engraver J. C. Easling British
Publisher Joseph Mallord William Turner British

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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 Easling here added mezzotint to describe a medieval gate tower standing guard over marshes bisected by the River Bede, near England's south coast. Soldiers in the foreground indicate military preparedness in the long war against Napoleonic France. The letter "P" above the image indicates Turner's category of Pastoral landscape.

Winchelsea Sussex, part ViII, plate 42 from "Liber Studiorum", Designed and etched by Joseph Mallord William Turner (British, London 1775–1851 London), Etching and mezzotint; first state of three (Finberg)

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