Bridge and Cows 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 2 ii/v
S 297 x 427 mm; P 206 x 286 mm; I 182 x 262 mm
SOLD
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Outstandingly strong impression in Finberg’s second state of the plate, prior to considerable reworking. Printed in dark brown ink, as first issued in Part IV of J.M.W.Turner’s most important printed work, the Liber Studiorum. A particularly fine example of this ‘Pastoral’ subject, as denoted by the letter ‘P’ above the image.
Bridge and Cows 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 antique laid paper with full margins and deckle edge. One vertical crease in sheet. Some ingrained dirt towards extreme edges of outer margins, otherwise very good condition. |
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