Chain of Alps from Grenoble to Chamberi, plate 49 from Liber Studiorum
Joseph Mallord William Turner (engraved by William Say (English, 1768-1834))
published May 23, 1812
- Medium
- Mezzotint and etching in brown on ivory wove paper
- Classification
- Dimensions
- Image: 17.7 × 26 cm (7 × 10 1/4 in.); Plate: 20.8 × 29.1 cm (8 1/4 × 11 1/2 in.); Sheet: 29 × 44 cm (11 7/16 × 17 5/16 in.)
- Culture
- England
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Prints and Drawings
- Credit line
- The Joseph Brooks Fair Collection
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
J. M. W. Turner is known primarily as a painter, but demonstrated his passion for landscape through printmaking in this mezzotint, which comes from a series of 71 prints called Liber Studiorum (Book of Studies). Turner categorized the types of landscape with a lettering system at the top of each sheet: A (Architectural), H (Historical), M (Marine or Mountainous), P (Pastoral), and the more obscure EP (Epic Pastoral). The play of light and shade on the water, mountains, fields, and distant views exemplifies Turner’s approach to landscape as an emotive interpretation of reality rather than a topographically accurate one. He chose to use mezzotint, an engraving process that creates tonal gradations similar to the effects of oil painting, to emphasize these light and dark effects.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
