The Alcove, Isleworth, part XIII, plate 63 from "Liber Studiorum"
Designed and etched by Joseph Mallord William Turner British
Engraver Henry Edward Dawe 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 Dawe here added mezzotint to describe a classical pavilion which he may relate to one at Syon Park. Turner lived at Sion (or Syon) Ferry House, Isleworth, on the Thames between 1805 and 1806, and this image derives from sketches he made along the river. Naturalistic observations of the English countrside are combined with idealized classical elements, and the scene bathed in a golden evening light. A bright reflected sail on the far shore recalls "White House, Chelsea," a famous watercolor by Turner's close friend Thomas Girtin, who had died tragically young in 1804. The letters "EP" in the upper margin likely stand for Elevated Pastoral and were applied by Turner to landscapes within the set that echo the Arcadian sensibility of Claude.
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