The Woman and Tambourine 1807 |
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Original etching by J.M.W. Turner, with mezzotint by Charles Turner.
With the artists’ names in the plate.
Ref: Finberg 3 ii/iv
S 270 x 405 mm; P 208 x 290 mm; I 184 x 266 mm
SOLD
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Excellent impression in Finberg’s second state of the plate, prior to any reworking. Printed in warm brown ink, as first issued in the first part of J.M.W.Turner’s Liber Studiorum in 1807. The Woman and Tambourine epitomises Turner’s style of elegant classical romantic landscape. The engraved letters ‘E.P.’ above the subject denote its categorisation as ‘Epic Pastoral’ or Elevated Pastoral’.
The Woman and Tambourine was engraved for the series entitled Liber Studiorum – the most important and the greatest single product of Turner’s life’s work. J.M.W.Turner worked on this series of etchings with mezzotint and aquatint from about 1806 until 1823 and he intended it to be the summation of his entire artistic œuvre. This monumental publication thus occupied over fifteen years of Turner’s life and was never completed, being abandoned for unknown reasons in 1823. The last published issue of the series was released in 1819, bringing the total number of published plates to 71, of which only 10 were finished by J.M.W. Turner himself.
The Liber Studiorum became, without doubt, the single most influential publication in the history of British Romantic landscape art. Not only were the pictures it contained to have considerable influence on many artists over the following decades, but the publication itself was to provide a model for men like Constable and others to follow.
All of the works in this series were etched by J.M.W. Turner himself, and the majority were based on sketches or paintings he had made, often some years previously. After Turner had completed the etched work this plate, together with 60 other etched plates etched by Turner, was passed to a commercial engraver whom the artist employed to add shading and tone through mezzotint engraving across the surface of the plate. This work leaves the recessed etched lines relatively undisturbed which, therefore, still represent the great artist’s original work.
On warm white laid paper with Dovecote watermark and with wide margins. Faint time tone within mat window area, otherwise very fine original condition. |
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