Martello Towers near Bexhill, Sussex (Liber Studiorum, part VII, plate 34)
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. Here we see his preliminary work on a plate that William Say later completed using mezzotint. Along a stretch of England's south coast, a road below cliffs recedes toward forts built to defend against a feared Napoleonic invasion. In the foreground a man and woman lead a donkey loaded with panniers and a child, as two hussars follow on horseback. Published states of this print include the letter "M" in the upper margin to indicate Turner's category of Marine landscape.
Artwork Details
- Title: Martello Towers near Bexhill, Sussex (Liber Studiorum, part VII, plate 34)
- Artist: Designed and etched by Joseph Mallord William Turner (British, London 1775–1851 London)
- Date: 1811
- Medium: Etching only; before first state of four
- Dimensions: plate: 7 x 10 3/16 in. (17.8 x 25.9 cm)
sheet: 8 1/4 x 11 3/8 in. (21 x 28.9 cm) - Classification: Prints
- Credit Line: H.O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H.O. Havemeyer, 1929
- Object Number: 29.107.118
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
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