Chain of Alps from Grenoble to Chamberi, part X, plate 49 from "Liber Studiorum"
Designed and etched by Joseph Mallord William Turner British
Engraver William Say British
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. 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 Say here added mezzotint to describe the expansive Isere valley centered on Grenoble. As British travelers approached from France, this was their first view of the alps, and the image of figures resting in front of a burst of sunlight was likely intended to contrast with "Peat Bog" (Liber Studiorum, no. 45), which shows workers toiling in the rain. The "M" in the upper margin indicates Turner's category of Mountainous landscape.
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