Entrance of Calais Harbour, part XI, plate 55 from "Liber Studiorum"
Artist and publisher Joseph Mallord William Turner British
Not on view
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. No preliminary drawing for this print is known, and the artist probably etched the image directly onto the plate from his related oil, "Fishing Boats entering Calais Harbor" (Frick Collection, New York). This is one of the few instances where Turner also developed the tone, using aquatint and mezzotint–normally a professional engraver executed this stage. We see fishing boats in the foreground negotiating a stiff breeze and high waves to approach the fortified entrance of a French harbor, with the city's skyline visible at left. The "M" in the top margin indicates Turner's category of Marine landscape.
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