Aesacus and Hesperie, Vide Ovid Metamorphosis, Book XI, part XIII, plate 66 from "Liber Studiorum"
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. In a few instances he also developed the tone, here adding mezzotint to evoke a wooded landscape centered on the water nymph Hesperia, watched drying herself on a river bank by Aesacus, a prince of Troy. The Ovidian theme ties the imag to poetry, and Turner weaves arborial layers, slanted rays of sun, and dappled shadows into a kind of magic naturalism. The letter "H" in the upper margin indicates the artist's category of Historical landscape.
Artwork Details
- Title: Aesacus and Hesperie, Vide Ovid Metamorphosis, Book XI, part XIII, plate 66 from "Liber Studiorum"
- Series/Portfolio: Liber Studiorum
- Artist and publisher: Joseph Mallord William Turner (British, London 1775–1851 London)
- Date: January 1, 1819
- Medium: Etching and mezzotint; third state of six (Finberg)
- Dimensions: plate: 7 1/16 x 10 3/16 in. (17.9 x 25.9 cm)
sheet: 8 5/16 x 11 1/2 in. (21.1 x 29.2 cm) - Classification: Prints
- Credit Line: Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1928
- Object Number: 28.97.66
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
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