Coast of Yorkshire, Near Whitby (Liber Studiorum, part V, plate 24)
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 define rough seas pounding a dark, rocky stretch of Yorkshire coast where stranded passengers from a wrecked ship appeal for help to figures on shore, and men wade into a sheltered foreground cove. A lighthouse punctuates the skyline and the letter "M" in the top margin indicates Turner's category of Marine landscape.
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