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TURNERS 
 
 LIBEB STUDIOBUM, 
 
TURNERS 
 
 LIBER STUDIORUM 
 
 A DESCRIPTION AND A CATALOGUE. 
 
 W. G. RAWLINSON. 
 
 Itonboir : 
 
 MACMILLAN AND CO., 
 1878. 
 
 The Right of Translation and Reproduction is Reserved. 
 
LONDON' : 
 
 R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR, 
 BREAD STREET HILL. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Up to the present time, no complete Catalogue of 
 Turners Liber Studiorum has, as far as I am 
 aware, been accessible to the public. In 1872 
 the Burlington Fine Arts Club held a memorable 
 Exhibition of the Liber, and with the Exhibition 
 appeared an admirable Catalogue (privately printed 
 here, and afterwards reprinted in America), my 
 indebtedness to which I desire at once freely to 
 acknowledge. 
 
 That Catalogue however had exclusive reference 
 to the Exhibition, and did not attempt any 
 description of the “ States ” of the Plates, but 
 simply noted the fact when differing “States” 
 were shown. I have aimed at giving a Catalogue 
 raisonnee of the various “ States ” of each Plate, as 
 well as a history and a description of the work, 
 
VI 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 as a whole ; as far as I have been able I have 
 also indicated the present resting-place of each 
 of the Drawings. I have striven to render my 
 descriptions of the “ States ” as clear and as 
 accurate as possible, and I believe they will be 
 found to be in the main trustworthy ; but every 
 student of the Liber will believe me when I say 
 that this has been no short or easy task, and 
 although during the last year or two I have 
 examined every collection, and indeed every set 
 of the work which has been available to me, I 
 am quite prepared to find that additions and 
 corrections may yet have to be made. 
 
 I am indebted to the kindness of so many 
 collectors and owners of Liber Drawings, Etchings 
 and Prints for the ready access to their* treasures, 
 as well as often for the valuable information they 
 have afforded me, that I must express my thanks 
 generally, contenting myself with singling out 
 Mr. Henry Vaughan, in whose safe keeping so 
 many of the Drawings, as well as of the rare 
 Unpublished Plates, rest, — 1 Ir. J. E. Taylor, the 
 study of whose unrivalled collection has been 
 invaluable, and Mr. Seymour Haden, whose lucid 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Vll 
 
 and interesting Letter on the Etchings will he 
 welcomed by all my readers. 
 
 Last, but not least, I must thank those personal 
 friends to whose encouragement and aid I owe 
 so much. 
 
 To critical readers, who may find in the book 
 defects which would have been avoided by a 
 more practised or a more leisured writer, I 
 must explain that it has been mainly compiled — - 
 a labour of love indeed — in such intervals as I 
 have been able to snatch from daily City work. 
 
 London, 
 
 October , 1878. 
 

CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTION . . * i 
 
 CATALOGUE OF THE PUBLISHED PLATES 1 
 
 CATALOGUE OF THE UNPUBLISHED PLATES 142 
 
 APPENDIX A. CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN TURNER AND LEWIS, 
 
 AND LEWIS AND PYE 181 
 
 APPENDIX B. PYE’S MEMORANDUM AS TO THE WEARING OF 
 
 THE LIBER COPPER-PLATES 187 
 
 APPENDIX C. REMARKS ON THE ETCHINGS, WITH A LETTER 
 
 FROM MR. SEYMOUR HADEN 189 
 
 APPENDIX D. LIST OF PLATES ENGRAVED ON STEEL BY 
 
 lupton, 1858 — 1864, in facsimile of liber studiorum 197 
 
 NUMERICAL INDEX OF THE PLATES AND THEIR ENGRAVERS . 201 
 
 ALPHABETICAL INDEX OF THE PLATES 
 
 . 204 
 

INTRODUCTION 
 
 TO 
 
 LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 TO 
 
 LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 The Liber Studiorum was designed and carried 
 out by Turner in the early-middle period of his 
 career, its publication ranging from 1807, when he 
 was thirty-two, to 1819, when he was forty-four 
 — these twelve years coinciding pretty nearly with 
 what is generally known as his “ second manner ” 
 in Art. 
 
 There is little doubt that it was suggested by, 
 and undertaken in direct rivalry of, the Liber 
 Yeritatis of Claude. This work had been engraved 
 by Earlom for the firm of Boydell and Co. about 
 thirty years previously, and the same publishers, 
 encouraged by the complete success of the two first 
 volumes, had just issued a third to which the same 
 public favour had been accorded. 
 
 i 
 
 0 
 
n 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Claude was then probably at the height of his 
 fame — in England, at all events ; Pilkington, whose 
 well-known Dictionary was published a few years 
 earlier (1797), telling us of his pictures, that “no 
 price, however great, was thought to be superior to 
 their merit/' 
 
 Turner was at that time, as well as both before 
 and after, strongly under the influence of the gr< at 
 seventeenth-century landscape-painter; and though 
 he must have been conscious of his own vast 
 superiority in range of subject, in creative power, 
 and even, except in one or two p< in execu- 
 tion, it is evident, from th ti ; way in which, 
 in his will, bequeathing hi pictures to the nation, 
 he insisted on certain of them being hung alonga 
 others of Claude's, that he regarded him to the last 
 as a rival. 
 
 The Liber Studiorum then was to be pitted 
 against the Liber Veritatis ; the rivalry however of 
 the two works was not a fair one. 
 
 For the Liber Yeritatis, first engraved and <dven 
 to the world more than a hundred years after 
 Claude's death, had never been intended for the 
 public eye. The painter had assiduously kept the 
 original sepia sketch - and first ideas of all his 
 principal pictures, collecting them into six bo< 
 and, as far as he was able, giving on the back of 
 the sketch, particulars of the history and the 
 ownership of the picture. These books, hereafter 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 iii 
 
 to be used as a reference both for purposes of 
 identification and for prevention of fraudulent sale 
 of other men’s pictures as his, he called his “ Libri 
 de Verity.” To ensure their safe keeping, lie en- 
 tailed them on his descendants for at least one 
 generation. Clearly then he had made no prepara- 
 tion in them for public view or public criticism, 
 much less for rivalry with others who might choose 
 to enter the lists against him. 
 
 But the Liber Studiorum was intended by Turner 
 from the first to be a series, — not of sketches, but 
 of fully-finished pictures ; and these pictures were 
 to illustrate his whole range of powers, and to 
 embrace every sort of subject of which he con- 
 sidered himself master. Designed therefore with 
 this distinct aim, the groundwork of nearly every 
 plate (and in several cases the whole plate) the 
 work of his own hand, and each after- stage 
 entrusted to the best engravers of his day, over 
 whom he kept strictest supervision, it is not to be 
 wondered at that Liber Yeritatis was utterly dis- 
 tanced, and that Liber Studiorum came forth a 
 truly monumental work, taking rank with the 
 highest productions of Turner’s genius, and ex- 
 hibiting intimately his strength, as indeed also his 
 weakness, during a period of his life in which a 
 large part of his strongest and soberest, though not 
 his most imaginative, work was done. 
 
 For although the twelve years of Taber did not 
 
 b 2 
 
IV 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 actually include the central culminating period of 
 Turner’s art — the period which gave us the “ Old 
 Temeraire,” the “Bay of Baise,” and the “England 
 and Wales ” drawings — neither did it include the 
 time of his earlier and cruder work on the one 
 hand, nor the time of his later extravagances and 
 eccentricities on the other. 
 
 It was contemporary with such noble pictures as 
 the “ Lowther Castle ” and the “ Mercury and 
 Herse ; ” as the “Crossing the Brook” and the 
 “ Frosty Morning ” of the National Gallery ; and 
 last, but not least, with the glorious drawings at 
 Farniey ; — and it was worthy of them all. 
 
 The subjects of the Liber Studiorum, a hundred 
 in number , 1 were partly invented or 
 
 Tke Subjects. " 
 
 composed by Turner expressly for the 
 work, partly taken direct from nature, and partly 
 adopted from pictures or drawings which he had 
 already painted. They were classified somewhat 
 quaintly, but in a manner very characteristic both 
 of Turner and of the time, under six headings, 
 each to be indicated on the print by its initial 
 letter. These headings were — 
 
 A rchitectural ( A ) . 
 
 Pastoral (P). 
 
 1 A letter in the Athenamm, of June 7, 1873, effectually establishes 
 this point ; the Advertisement alluded to in it will be found in full at 
 page xxx hereafter. 
 
INTRODUCTION . 
 
 y 
 
 Elegant Pastoral (E. P.) 
 
 Marine (M). 
 
 Mountainous (M s or M). 
 
 Historical (H). 
 
 As tlie Advertisement just named will show, 
 Turner seems to have contemplated distributing 
 the plates in equally assorted numbers of each 
 class; but this was not carried out. Of the 70 
 published the proportions were as follows : — 
 
 Pastoral, 14 ; 
 
 Elegant Pastoral, 14 ; 
 
 Mountainous, 1 2 ; 
 
 Architectural, 11 ; 
 
 Marine, 11 ; 
 
 Plistorical, 8 ; 
 
 nor, as far as we can judge, would the unpub- 
 lished subjects have made the numbers right. 
 
 The Drawings for the work were made in 
 sepia, the vehicle of the Liber Yeritatis 
 and therefore of its rival, and -they Dra ^® gs 
 were mostly of the size which had been 
 chosen for the Prints. Their tone varies con- 
 siderably. Most are of the natural cool and 
 pleasant brown of sepia ; but in some bistre has 
 been largely admixed, giving a more sombre hue ; 
 and others are red or “ foxy ” from the addition 
 of umber. 
 
VI 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Iii one or two instances (. Dunstanborough , for 
 example,) the combination of these different browns 
 gives almost the effect of colour. This variation, 
 which is still more noticeable in the Prints, was 
 I believe not unintentional. In all work of the 
 greatest men it is of course never safe to regard 
 even the smallest points as accidental, and we 
 have evidence that, in the printing at all events, 
 Turner had regard to the colour of the ink. On 
 an engraver’s proof of Norham (No. 57), in the 
 possession of Mr. C. S. Bale, is to be seen in 
 the painter’s own handwriting the following in- 
 structions : — 
 
 “ This is the colour I wish — but it must be observed 
 that the same ink will not on all the plates produce t lie 
 same effect — therefore two or more colours must be used, 
 so that all the prints may appear the same tint. When 
 the printer is well set in please to let me know. The 
 three prints I have sent are more of the bistre colour 
 than yours, and a fine rich bistre colour is the tint I 
 want.” 
 
 Mr. Halsted, the well-known printseller, also 
 recollects notes of the same nature on a proof of 
 River Wye (No. 48), which once passed through 
 his hands. We may conclude therefore that the 
 tone of the Drawings was also varied purposely. 
 
 These Drawings are peculiarly Drawings for 
 Engravers, and not Sketches in the true sense 
 of the word ; they are admirably fitted for their 
 
INTRODUCTION . 
 
 vii 
 
 purpose of guidance to the engraver, but they are 
 also limited by that very fituess, and they have 
 neither the freshness and directness which mark no 
 man’s sketches more than Turner’s, nor the subtle 
 and supremely delicate finish which no man knew 
 better than he how to give when he desired it. 
 They are, I think, no more to be taken as charac- 
 teristic Turner drawings than are his later coloured 
 drawings for the vignette engravers. In both cases, 
 the limitation in expression, by reason of the fitness 
 for a special purpose, is apparent . 1 
 
 Fifty-one of the Drawings were left by Turner 
 to the nation ; the&e, after having been exhibited for 
 several years at South Kensington, are now in the 
 National Gallery. Three are in the Print Room 
 of the British Museum, and about thirty are in 
 private collections whose owners are known. This 
 leaves about sixteen subjects unaccounted for. The 
 Drawings for one or two of these are remembered 
 by dealers through whose hands they have passed, 
 but I have been unable to trace their present 
 
 1 It therefore appears to me to be matter for regret that the 
 fifty-one belonging to the nation should be exhibited with the promi- 
 nence now given to them at the National Gallery. Not only are 
 they becoming utterly faded and in other ways deteriorated by con- 
 tinual exposure, but the position given them leads to their being 
 constantly copied by students, who would surely learn more of Turner’s 
 intentions in Liber Studiorum, if they studied and copied a fine set 
 of the Prints. A glance at the Drawings which are in private hands 
 will convince any one of the injury done to those exhibited. I have 
 seen many during the last few months. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 viii 
 
 whereabouts. The plates for which no Drawings 
 are known are chiefly those engraved throughout 
 by Turner himself, and for many of these probably 
 no sepia Drawings were ever made. 
 
 The engraving of the Liber Studiorum was from 
 the first a matter of the utmost care 
 En-ravui^ f Turner. Attracted it is said bv 
 the fine series of landscape plates which 
 Paul Sandby had engraved in aquatint from his 
 own drawings some twenty or thirty years earlier, 
 and also probably by more recent work by Dan i ell, 
 Lewis, and others, in all of which could be readilv 
 seen the greater freedom of the aquatint process as 
 compared with etching or line-engraving, more es- 
 pecially in rendering all those effects of light, cloud, 
 and atmosphere so dear to him, he first decided to 
 employ that medium, joined (as mezzotint was 
 later) with etching, 1 for reproducing his designs for 
 Liber. Accordingly he agreed with F. C. Lewis, 
 the best aquatint engraver of the day, who at that 
 very time was at work on facsimiles of Claude’s 
 drawings, to proceed with his first plate, The 
 Bridge and Goats (afterwards issued as No. 43). 
 The understanding seems to have been that Turner 
 
 1 For full description of the technical methods employed, see the 
 quotation from Hamerton, at page xii. The process of aquatint is 
 different from that of mezzotint there described, but the principle 
 of its adding the light and shade to the previously etched outlines is 
 the same. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 IX 
 
 should first etch the copper and Lewis aquatint 
 upon it ; the payment to the latter being fixed at 
 five guineas a plate. 
 
 Whilst, however, Lewis was at work upon the 
 first plate, which had been etched as agreed, 
 Turner, we find from a letter still preserved, 1 sent 
 him another Drawing, Chepstow Castle (afterwards 
 called River Wye , No. 48), with a request that he 
 would either engrave this one without an etching, 
 or if he was unable to do without it, that he would 
 etch the plate for himself. Lewis evidently pro- 
 posed to adopt the latter plan, and considering that 
 for the additional work he was entitled to additional 
 pay, he appears — not unreasonably, we shall say — - 
 to have raised his first certainly inadequate charge 
 to eight guineas. 
 
 Accordingly Turner in another letter acknow- 
 ledges the receipt of a Proof of the first plate, 
 wdiich with certain criticisms he praises, saying 
 that the effect of the Drawing is well preserved ; 
 but he curtly remarks that the price having been 
 raised to eight guineas, he must decline to have 
 the second Drawing engraved, and requests that 
 it may be returned with the first plate, adding 
 characteristically, that when both have arrived 
 safely, the five guineas (due for the first) shall be 
 
 1 Three Letters from Turner to Lewis, and two from Lewis to Pye 
 on the subject, will be found in Appendix A. 
 
X 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 left at Salisbury Street (Lewis’s address), where 
 lie asks that a receipt for the money may be in 
 readiness. 
 
 This ended Lewis’s connection with Liber, and 
 though we may rejoice that the dispute led to the 
 finer medium of mezzotint being afterwards em- 
 ployed in place of aquatint, it will probably be 
 thought that the engraver was justified in the 
 course he took. His original charge was low 
 
 o o 
 
 enough ; lie was getting at the time abundant em- 
 ployment and double and treble prices by en- 
 graving facsimiles of drawings by the old masters, 
 and either of the alterations which Turner pro- 
 posed would undoubtedly have thrown on him 
 much additional and troublesome work. Still it 
 is satisfactory to learn 1 that he recognised later in 
 life, the high place to which the Liber was entitled, 
 and regretted that for fame’s sake he had not 
 thrown aside the considerations of this extra labour, 
 which he tells us had influenced him more than 
 the money question. 
 
 From aquatint Turner appears to have directed 
 his thoughts to mezzotint, a method till then little 
 used except for portrait engraving. 
 
 Here he found a school of able engravers, 
 
 O 1 
 
 actively employed on the pictures of Lawrence, 
 
 1 See his Letters, Appendix A, Xos. -1 and 5. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xi 
 
 Opie, and Northcote, and well * maintaining the 
 high traditions which they had inherited from 
 their brilliant predecessors and teachers — the con- 
 temporaries, and the splendid translators into black 
 and white, of the works of Reynolds and Gains - 
 borough. 
 
 There is a tradition that he went to see one of 
 the most distinguished of them, Charles Turner, 
 afterwards so well known in connection with Liber, 
 at work ; and that, impressed either by the results 
 obtained by the process or by the facility of exe- 
 cution it afforded, he set to work to engrave in 
 mezzotint himself ; the eleven or twelve delight- 
 ful small plates known as the “ Sequel to Liber 
 Studiorum,” which were found unfinished at his 
 death, and the intention and origin of which have 
 always been a mystery, being supposed to represent 
 the results of his first essays. Of this however 
 there seems to me great doubt, principally from 
 the style of the plates themselves, which would 
 appear to point to a later period in Turner’s art. 
 Some practice, however, he must have had, as we 
 find him (though not till 1811 , four years later,) 
 engraving with absolute success, in mezzotint, The 
 Junction of Severn and Wye , one of the finest 
 plates (No. 28 ) of Liber. 
 
 Be this however as it may, a combination of 
 etching and mezzotint was finally adopted as the 
 method of reproducing the Liber designs. That is 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xii 
 
 to say, the great leading lines of each plate — the 
 skeleton, so to speak — were first etched on the 
 copper, and etched in nearly every case by Turner 
 himself : and all the rest — the lmht and shade and 
 
 J O 
 
 the delicate parts, such as the sky, where lines 
 would be inexpedient or impracticable — were after- 
 wards added in mezzotint, by various engravers, 
 all working under his minute and constant super- 
 vision. 
 
 Mr. Hamerton, writing; with the knowledge of a 
 practical etcher (“ Etching and Etchers,” 1st Ed., 
 Chap. II. p. 81) thus fully and lucidly explains 
 the nature of these two processes, and the method 
 of their combination : — 
 
 “ An etched shade, as the reader is already aware, is 
 produced by lines which are drawn with a point on a 
 varnished plate (the point removing the varnish where it 
 passes), and afterwards bitten-in with aquafortis ; but a 
 shade in mezzotint is left, and the passages in mezzotint 
 which are perfectly white are the places where the plate 
 has been scraped till the bur is all gone, and then 
 polished with a burnisher. When etching and mezzotint 
 are used in combination on the same plate, the etching 
 is done first, and in simple lines, which are bitten-in more 
 deeply than they would be if the plate were intended to 
 remain a pure etching; then the plate is roughened all 
 over with a tool on purpose, and which produces bur , — 
 that is, a raising of little points of copper. These little 
 points, which are raised by millions, all catch the ink in 
 printing, and would yield an intense black if they were 
 not removed. They are accordingly partially removed 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Xlll 
 
 with tlie scraper when lighter darks are required, and the 
 lighter the passage the more the bur is cleared away, till 
 finally in high lights it is removed altogether, and the 
 plate in these places is burnished. Now, the difference 
 between etching with a view to mezzotint, and etching 
 with no such intention, is very great. The etcher for 
 mezzotint is satisfied with selecting and laying down the 
 most necessary and expressive lines, — the great guiding 
 lines, — and does not trouble himself about shading, except 
 so far as to leave the plate in a condition to be shaded 
 properly in mezzotint : whereas the worker in pure etching 
 not only gives the selected and expressive guiding lines, 
 but portions of shade along with them, and at the same 
 time.” 
 
 It will be observed that the object aimed at 
 was to give by means of engraving (and therefore 
 of course, in a number of copies) the effect of 
 the drawings of Claude and of the older masters, 
 who outlined their sketches with the reed-pen, 
 and then with the brush washed in the shadows 
 in monotone. In the Liber the etching was to 
 represent the pen-work, and the mezzotint the 
 brush-work. 
 
 It has already been stated that the etching of the 
 Liber plates was, in the greater number 
 of cases, the work of Turner’s own hand. Etchings. 
 Fortunately, although (as letters prove) 
 he was at first anxious to get this all-important 
 part done by his engravers, he found most of them 
 either unable or unwilling to relieve him of the 
 
XIV 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 task. Fortunately too, he had several impressions 
 struck off from each copper before any mezzotint 
 work was added. With what purpose this was 
 done cannot now be ascertained — he was never 
 known to have sold any of them, and all being- 
 alike they could not have been proofs. 
 
 These Etchings of Liber are of the utmost 
 interest. They are singularly varied in effect- 
 some differing so much from others as to have 
 caused me for a considerable time to doubt 
 whether, although claimed to be Turner’s work, 
 they were actually < 1 >ne by him : even now 1 am 
 compelled to hold my judgment in suspense on a 
 few. On this subject however 1 have had the 
 advantage of eliciting the views of Mr. Seymour 
 
 V— C/ v 
 
 Haden, whose practical knowledge has cleared up 
 many points which seemed difficult, and his 
 valuable Letter which will be found in the 
 Appendix, will enable my readers to form their 
 own conclusions. Mr. Haden, it will be seen, 
 clearly recognises that the biting-in of the etchings 
 — a matter, as he explains, of the utmost moment, 
 and requiring the knowledge of an artist, as well 
 as the manual skill of an expert — was the work of 
 others besides Turner ; and he considers that it is 
 to this that we must to a large extent attribute 
 the varying styles of the Etchings. Moreover, 
 notes in existence on the margins of proof im- 
 pressions show that although Turner may have 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XV 
 
 himself done the groundwork of the etching, he 
 undoubtedly not only allowed but instructed his 
 engravers to add work of their own, as well as to 
 strengthen or lighten work of his. 
 
 Leaving however the doubtful ones aside, the 
 majority of these Etchings bear unmistakeable 
 evidence of Turners handiwork, and well merit 
 Mr, HamertoiTs assertion that they are “ the 
 strongest things done in modern times with the 
 etching-needle.” For grasp of the essential lines 
 of a picture, and for expression of these essential 
 lines in the directest possible way — yet so as not to 
 restrain or interfere with the freedom and delicacy 
 of the light and shade and tone to be afterwards 
 added, — they seem to me unsurpassed, even by 
 such a master of the “ shorthand” of landscape as 
 Rembrandt. It is true they are only etchings 
 for mezzotint, — true too, that of necessity they 
 entirely lack those effects of light and cloud, of 
 sun and storm, which we regard as peculiarly the 
 province of Turner, and in which his genius was 
 supreme ; but they show us his truth and freedom, 
 of tree drawing — his power of giving with two or 
 three strokes the whole structure and nature of 
 rocks — his consummate knowledge of the lines of 
 water and of reflections on water, and his mar- 
 vellous subtlety and harmony in composition. 
 And these characteristics of Turner we see in the 
 Etchings all the more clearly from their extreme 
 
XV L 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 simplicity. The sense of their condensed power, 
 as well as in many cases of their extreme beauty, 
 grows as one studies them more and knows them 
 
 O 
 
 better. One seems in them to approach more 
 intimately to Turners mind, to be more face to 
 face with him, than one does often in the Prints, 
 where, at times, one cannot but feel that another 
 hand has come between us and the original 
 thought, and that this or that detail would have 
 been very differently done had it been done by 
 Turner himself. 
 
 The following admirable remarks of Mr. Hamerton 
 on Turner as an Etcher, will be read with interest 
 (as indeed will the whole of the very able chapter 
 from which they are taken) by every student of 
 Liber : — - 
 
 “ Turner was a first-rate etcher cm trait, hut he did not 
 trust himself to carry out chiaroscuro in etching, and 
 habitually resorted to mezzotint for his light and shade. 
 His etchings were always done from the beginning with 
 reference to the whole arrangement of the chiaroscuro, 
 and he never laid a line with the needle without entire 
 understanding of its utility in effect. But the effect itself, 
 in Turner’s etchings, is always reserved for mezzotint, and 
 it results from this habit of his, that Turner is not so good 
 an example for etchers, or so interesting a master to study, 
 
 as if he had trusted to pure etching for everything 
 
 The power of Turner as an etcher was his power of 
 selecting main lines, and drawing them firmly and 
 vigorously In this respect no landscape etcher ever sur- 
 passed him ; and if his etchings are studied as examples 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XVII 
 
 of line selection, they can do nothing but good, if we 
 only bear in mind that they are preparations for mezzotint. 
 
 “ Another point that we cannot safely lose sight of is, 
 that they were not intended to be printed in black, but 
 in a rich reddish brown, so that the fear of over-biting 
 was considerably lessened, and in the heavy foreground 
 markings Turner did not hesitate to corrode the lines 
 to such a depth that the paper was really embossed in 
 the printing, and a student of art who had become blind 
 might recognise a particular plate by passing his fingers 
 over the back of the impressed proof. One of the most 
 curious instances of this is the f Jason’ in the ‘ Liber 
 Studiorum/ There is a shadow under the tree to the left 
 which is like the bars of a portcullis. The scales of the 
 dragon, the heavy indications of trees, the foreground 
 markings of vegetation, are all so bitten that the paper 
 shows them behind in deeply sunk hollows. From these 
 tremendous corrosions Turner passed to light indications 
 of distance, as, for instance, in the unpublished plate of 
 Dumbarton, which gives one of the most delicate and 
 charming distances ever etched. There is a small rough 
 etching of Eton 1 with a man ploughing, without mezzotint, 
 which is a good instance of Turner’s tendencies in biting, 
 and is one of the most interesting of his attempts, because 
 it shows in exaggeration the sort of quality he aimed at in 
 etching. . . . From a desire to economise time, or perhaps 
 simply from imitation of Claude’s ‘ Liber Veritatis,’ Turner 
 never relied upon etching to render effect, and does not 
 seem ever to have studied it as an independent art. 
 The kind of work he aimed at in etching was an indica- 
 tion of form, like the pen-work with which he would 
 often add firmness and precision to a sepia drawing. 
 The wash with the brush was to be imitated in mezzo- 
 tint, and the difference between his combination of sepia 
 
 1 No 79, Unpublished. 
 
 C 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xviii 
 
 and pen-drawing, and liis combination of mezzotint and 
 etching, was chiefly a difference in the order of procedure. 
 When he worked on paper, the broad washes were first 
 given, and the pen-markings added at the last ; but when 
 he worked on copper, the lines were etched first, and 
 then the shades added by himself or another engraver. 
 This reversal of method offered, of course, no difficulty 
 whatever to Turner, who, having a perfect hold of his 
 subject, could treat it in any way he liked ; and what I 
 infer from his choice of this combination is, that Turner 
 was not really anxious to produce etchings as etchings, 
 but merely used etching and mezzotint as the most con- 
 venient processes for rendering his sepia studies. In 
 this want of an etcher's ambition lies the distinction 
 between Turner and some other great men that have 
 etched. He made use of etching as an auxiliary, and 
 etched well within the limits of the sort of etching he 
 proposed to himself, but he never tried what the process 
 was capable of ... . 
 
 “ It would not be right to leave Turner without acknow- 
 ledgment of the very unusual manliness of his manner as 
 an etcher — a manliness unfortunately rare in the English 
 school. His grasp of rock and tree and mountain, his 
 feeling of wildness on desolate moor and black tarn, his 
 fisherman's sense of the strength of stout old boats, his 
 understanding generally of the nature of material resistance 
 in everything, are so masculine, that a few touches of his 
 reveal more of the true nature of matter in any form 
 than the most laboured work of our imitative school.” 
 
 The mezzotinting of tlie first twenty plates was 
 entrusted to the painter’s namesake, but 
 
 Mezzotint- . rNi i m 
 
 ing. not relative, Lliarles burner (afterwards 
 A.R.AA He was already an experienced 
 portrait engraver, but lie had as yet attempted no 
 
INTRODUCTION . 
 
 xix 
 
 landscape work beyond slight backgrounds, and I 
 shall endeavour to show, when speaking of the 
 plates separately, that his progress can be dis- 
 tinctly traced as he gained experience in this 
 branch of Art, and especially in rendering Turner s 
 intentions. 
 
 It was originally planned that he should have 
 engraved the whole work ; but after the first 
 twenty plates had appeared, the two men quar- 
 relled. There is no doubt that this quarrel arose 
 about pecuniary matters ; Charles Turner, like 
 Lewis, considering himself insufficiently paid, espe- 
 cially as, in addition to the duties of engraving, 
 Turner had induced him to undertake the pub- 
 lication and sale of the work. Later in life he 
 told John Pye, the engraver , 1 that he had received 
 for his whole trouble only eight guineas a plate, 
 and it is believed that he required an advance 
 to ten guineas, which Turner declined to grant. 
 The payments for the work were undoubtedly 
 very small, compared with the scale of prices 
 which engravers were then receiving, yet, as the 
 result showed, they were more than Turner could 
 afford. 
 
 After this quarrel, Turner employed several other 
 engravers. Their work was as a rule extremely 
 good, owing not only to their own merits, without 
 
 1 See Pye’s letter in the Athenceum of March 1 st 1862. 
 
XX 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 which they would not have been chosen, but owing 
 also, very certainly, to the constant supervision 
 which Turner exercised over them ; a supervision 
 which his own consummate practical knowledge 
 of their art, (when and how obtained, we do 
 not know,) rendered most effective. Evidence 
 of this may be seen not only in the numerous 
 touched proofs which are in collectors’ hands, but 
 also in the still more precious instances where, on 
 the margins of certain proofs, may yet be seen, in 
 the painter’s own handwriting, instructions and 
 corrections for the engravers, some of them in 
 their style extremely characteristic of Turner, and 
 all of them showing with what minute care he 
 followed the work, and how definite and precise 
 were his intentions as to every detail of even* 
 plate. All such notes which I have met with, I 
 shall give hereafter verbatim. 
 
 William Say, who, after Charles Turner, en- 
 graved the largest number of the Liber plates 
 (ll), 1 was already an artist of note. I use the 
 word “ artist ” advisedly, for I believe a study of 
 his works will leave a very high sense of his 
 abilities. 2 He too had previously had no landscape 
 experience, beyond slight suggestions of foliage in 
 
 1 I am speaking here of the Published Plates of Liber only. 
 
 2 The Print Koom of the British Museum is fortunate in possessing 
 a complete series of proofs of all his works, presented by his son. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xxi 
 
 the backgrounds of a few portraits, and the con- 
 ventional rocks, wood, and water, in prints after 
 sentimental pictures of shipwrecked mariners and 
 forlorn damsels, by Thomson, Northcote, Owen, 
 and others. His Liber prints were almost his only 
 landscape work ; though he engraved afterwards a 
 fine plate of Lincoln Cathedral after Mackenzie. 
 
 Dunkarton, who came next, was also a splendid 
 mezzotint portrait engraver ; to him we owe five 
 plates of Liber, including the fine Hindoo Wor- 
 shipper (No. 23), Hind Head Hill (No. 25), and 
 Rizpah (No. 46). 
 
 Clint achieved such perfect success with the only 
 two entrusted to him, Peat Bog (No. 45), and 
 Procris and Cephalus (No. 41), that we may 
 regret that he did no others. He too was well 
 known as an able portrait engraver. 
 
 Easling’s work in Winchelsea (No. 42) was very 
 good, and conjointly with Annis — who engraved 
 but one plate entirely alone, River Wye (No. 48) 
 — he executed the delightful Mildmay Sea-Piece 
 (No. 40) : Hedging and Ditching (No. 47) raises 
 his number of plates to three. 
 
 Dawe (4 plates), S. W. Reynolds (2 plates), and 
 Hodgetts (3 plates), were distinctly weaker men ; 
 though the first named, in addition to his mezzo- 
 tinting, is believed to have been entrusted by 
 Turner with the etching of the fine subjects of 
 Arveron (No. 60), and Bonneville (No. 64) — 
 
XXII 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 probably also of Raglan (No. 58), and The Mill 
 near the Grand Chartreuse (No. 54). 
 
 To Lnpton, Turner’s youngest engraver, who 
 died only in 1873, we may give a high place. 
 His first plate, Solivay Moss (No. 52), was a 
 splendid success; so was also Ben Arthur (No. 09). 
 Four of the published plates are from his hand, be- 
 sides a few of the unpublished. I le was afterwards 
 employed by Turner on his “ Fivers of England ” 
 and “Ports of England,” and his work in land- 
 scape mezzotint is invariably of the highest order. 
 
 F. C. Lewis, the remaining engraver of Liber, 
 has already been alluded to; 1 one plate onlv, in 
 aquatint (No. 43), is his. 
 
 Charles Turner, it should be added, notwith- 
 standing his early breach with Turner, resumed his 
 connection with Liber later on, and brought up his 
 total number of published plates to twenty-three. 
 He was also continuing others when the work 
 was stopped, and was subsequently employed on 
 Turner’s “ Rivers of England. ” 
 
 Sixty out of the seventy-one published plates 
 have now been accounted for. 2 The eleven re- 
 maining were Turner’s own engraving, and in them 
 we see the master hand, to whom brush, pencil, 
 etching-needle or burin, were equally subservient 
 
 1 Page viii. 
 
 2 For a detailed list of the plates and their 
 Numerical Index. 
 
 engravers, see 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xxiii 
 
 instruments in expressing tlie thought. Two things 
 are noticeable about Turner’s own mezzotinting ; 
 one the rapidity with which it wore, as compared 
 with the work of the professional engravers, and 
 the other (arising doubtless out of this), the extra- 
 ordinary way in which he changed the effects from 
 time to time — witness Loch Fyne (No. 35), Calm 
 (No. 44), Mer de Glace (No. 50), and Interior of 
 a Church (No. 70). 
 
 Every one familiar with mezzotint engraving 
 knows how rapid is its deterioration as 
 
 1 Deteriora- 
 
 printum goes on. The minute raised tion > in 
 
 1 o o Printing. 
 
 particles of the copper soon wear down, 
 chiefly from the friction necessary in cleaning the 
 plate after printing each impression, and also from 
 the mere repeated impact of the paper on the plate. 
 The higher parts accordingly, retaining less ink, 
 give the original darks a lighter effect ; while the 
 scraped and burnished lights, losing their smooth- 
 ness on the copper, attract ink and become suffused 
 with colour. Of course the balance of the whole 
 plate is thus doubly affected. It is reckoned that 
 by the time twenty-five to thirty impressions have 
 been taken from a mezzotint copper-plate, much 
 of its original effect will usually have been 
 sensibly lost, 1 and in these considerable differences 
 
 1 See Pye’s Memorandum with special reference to this subject as 
 regards Liber, in Appendix B. 
 
XXIV 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 “ States.” 
 
 will be seen on comparing the first ten with the 
 last ten. There is, however, great variation in 
 copper-plates, arising from the different handling 
 of different engravers, as well as from the metal 
 itself being harder or softer, and also from 
 the greater or less care bestowed on the 
 printing. 
 
 Deterioration being apparent, the copper has to 
 be retouched from time to time ; alterations are 
 frequently necessary, and the impression may be 
 said to be rarely, if ever, exactly the same as 
 before. The differences caused by this retouching 
 constitute what are usually called the 
 “ States ” of Liber. This word “ States,” 
 it is well known, is also used to describe the 
 progress of the engraving of a plate, before its 
 completion ; and it is equally well known that 
 large sums are often given by collectors for “Early 
 States ” or impressions, the value of which often 
 lies rather in their rarity than their beauty, being 
 necessarily imperfect. 
 
 In describing the Liber Studiorum, I shall 
 venture to depart from the frequent practice of 
 calling these early, unfinished impressions, “ States.” 
 They should, it appears to me, correctly be called 
 “ Engravers’ Proofs.” The word “States,” I shall 
 apply only to the engravings taken from the 
 coppers after the last “ Proof ” had shown Turner 
 that the mezzotinter had given the final touches 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XXV 
 
 which rendered the plate a faithful transcript of 
 the painter's mind and hand. 
 
 The interest and the value of the Engravers’ 
 Proofs of Liber appear to me to vary very greatly. 
 Judged by the test which is surely the soundest 
 — their being or not being the “ faithful tran- 
 script of the painter’s mind and hand ” — many 
 of them fail to show sufficient reason for the high 
 prices they command. Often they are so mani- 
 festly incomplete that, although interesting as 
 marking the progress of the work, they wholly 
 lack the beauty of the finished picture, and are 
 therefore, I hold, inherently of less instead of more 
 value than the impressions which Turner thought 
 the fittest to give to the world. 
 
 But, on the other hand, with a method of 
 engraving which so quickly deteriorates as does 
 mezzotinting on copper, I cannot but see that 
 in the latest Engravers’ Proofs — when but the 
 slightest and almost imperceptible touches re- 
 mained to be given — there is a rare brilliance in 
 the lights — a rare richness in the darks — a rare 
 “bloom” over the whole, which is scarcely to be 
 seen again ; and, all of them having been expressly 
 taken either to be submitted to Turner for his 
 approval, or as their own perquisites by the en- 
 gravers or the printer, it is probable that extra 
 care would be bestowed on the printing — a most 
 vital point with all engravings. The value of 
 
XXVI 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 these Proofs of Liber can hardly, 1 thin 1 :, be 
 exaggerated. 
 
 To return to the question of States. Turner 
 is believed to have himself almost invariably done 
 the retouching rendered necessary bv the \v. ar < f 
 
 O V X, 
 
 the plate. And the consummate skill which he 
 here displayed was equalled by the consummate 
 ingenuity with which he concealed the f <*t of t!ie 
 retouches from his purchasers, while addin- m r - 
 which should be recognised by himself alone. 
 Minute alterations were made in tie I • ■ 1 1 • ■ i n , 
 small lines and dots were added in t; m r_ i 
 variations appear in the spelling of tie titl ; .ill 
 of which had their meaning, and require .some 
 patient study before that nn aning < m b de- 
 ciphered. There is no doubt that In* *old, in- 
 tentionally, as “ Proofs” (or *• hirst St it- s’ a we 
 should call them), impression- from «•< -p; w! b 
 had been once, twice, or even t hr* r- tom led. 
 Nominally the “ Proofs were double the prir, nf 
 ordinary Prints, but actually he 
 pressions almost indiscriminati lv, tie onl\ r- 
 ence being in the price. No sub- r b i - <• »pv of 
 the work is known to have really contain' d Ibi-t 
 States alone, though many were sold . 
 
 1 Mr. Hoisted had once a copy of which forty ; ’ • w - r< "iy K re 
 States; but of the many which have passed the . 1 hand's no other 
 ever reached this number. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XXVll 
 
 It need hardly be said that, as a rule, “ First 
 States” are much the finest and most desirable to 
 possess ; but early impressions of “Second States” 
 are sometimes fully equal to late “ First States,” 
 and occasionally they are even superior. They 
 generally command good prices ; and purchasers 
 who carefully choose early “ Second States ” will 
 still get, in the main, the plate with much of its 
 original character, though always with a slight 
 loss in the more delicate parts, such as the 
 skies. Some plates even in the Third State are 
 really fine ; many are fairly good ; but all have 
 more or less suffered, and should be bought with 
 great caution. After the Third State the plate 
 had usually (though not invariably) so much 
 deteriorated that its beauty and value had en- 
 tirely gone, nevertheless impressions continued to 
 be taken off till they became mere ghosts. In 
 one case ( Calm , No. 44) the Third State is 
 oddly enough the one most admired — an effect 
 of sunny haze, which engraving had not been 
 able to reach, having been obtained by wear, 
 and by the retouching which that wear rendered 
 necessary. 
 
 The printing of the Liber plates was carried out 
 by Lahee of Castle Street. The paper 
 
 . . Printing. 
 
 chiefly employed was a fine, ribbed, 
 hand-made description, which he habitually ob- 
 tained from France expressly for his copper-plates. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xxviii 
 
 It contained a certain amount of iron, which 
 accounts for the stains one sometimes sees in Liber 
 plates. Occasionally Whatman paper was used 
 for the Prints, as it was almost invariably for the 
 Etchings. The very late and worthless impres- 
 sions which appeared chiefly at the end of the 
 Turner sale in 1873, were taken on a smoother and 
 stouter English paper. 
 
 Turner was in the habit of constantly visiting 
 
 Lahee’s printing-office to watch the results of his 
 
 alterations, and the effects of new plates. Standing 
 
 *■ © 
 
 by the press, he would examine each impression as 
 it came off, and with burin or scraper make such 
 changes or retouches on the copper as lie thought 
 desirable ; sometimes getting his plates into such 
 a muddle that they had to be sent home to him 
 to be seriously treated. 
 
 The work began to appear in January, 1807. It 
 was issued in Parts, each Part containing 
 
 Publication. 
 
 five plates, stitched in an unpretending 
 bluish-gray wrapper, each wrapper initialed by tin* 
 painter on the outside. Turner published the first 
 Part himself, selling it at his house in 1 Parley Street. 
 He then induced his engraver, Charles Turner, to 
 undertake this duty, and the hitters address (50, 
 Warren Street, Fitzroy Square) appeared on ev< ry 
 plate until their quarrel in 1809. After that time 
 Turner resumed the publication, dating his plates 
 from his new house in Queen Ann Street West, 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XXIX 
 
 where he received subscriptions, and afterwards sold 
 the work in its complete form. 
 
 Such a course was then usual both with 
 painters and engravers ; the modern practice of 
 entrusting the whole risk, trouble, and profit or 
 loss, to an independent publisher, though not 
 unknown, being the exception rather than the 
 rule. Most of the leading engravers of that day 
 — Say, Charles Turner, Lewis, and others — 
 habitually published and sold their own works. 
 
 No particulars are known of any advertisement 
 of the Liber in its earlier stages ; but that some 
 such was intended, though apparently not carried 
 out, is evident from a pencil-note in Turner’s hand- 
 writing on the margin of a proof of the Lake of 
 Thun (No. 15, published in 1808), in the pos- 
 session of Mr. J. E. Taylor. It is as follows : — 
 
 “ Eespecting advertising, you know full well that every- 
 thing ought to have been done long ago ! ! I have not 
 seen a word in the papers) take it away again form 
 [from ?] the times [sic], if you can get advertised any- 
 where do so my room will close in a fortnight, the plates 
 not done not advertised, in short everything has con- 
 spired against the work.” 
 
 Later on, in 1816, the following advertise- 
 ment 1 was stitched as a flysheet into one of the 
 
 1 It was not generally known that the work had ever been adver- 
 tised, until the advertisement on the next page was discovered by 
 Mr. Potter (of Gorway, Walsall), and communicated by him to the 
 Athenceum of June 7, 1873. 
 
XXX 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 periodical numbers of the “ Southern Coast,” then 
 in course of publication by Cooke from drawings 
 by Turner : — 
 
 “Turner’s 'Liber Studiorum/ published February 1, 
 1816. The eleventh and twelfth numbers of * Li 
 Studiorum/ by J. M. W. Turner, lt.A. In continuation of 
 the second volume of this work, intended as an illus- 
 tration of Landscape Composition, classed as follows: 
 Historical, Mountainous, Pastoral, Marine, and Archi- 
 tectural. Each number contains live engravings in me//o- 
 tinto ; one subject of each class: engraved by Turner, 
 W. Say, T. Lupton, II. Law, and T. llugetts. The whole 
 work will be comprised in numbers, forming two 
 
 volumes; ten numbers of which are published, containing 
 fifty engravings, including some subjects from pictures 
 painted by the author, in the possession of different 
 noblemen and gentlemen. Proofs, £2 2s. e i. h number. 
 Prints, £1 Is. do. — Subscriptions received .it Mr. Turuer\ 
 Queen Anne Street, llarley Street. W. Wilson, printer, 
 4, Greville Street, Hatton Garden, London.” 
 
 From all of which we learn that Turner <li<l 
 not, as has been supposed, rdv solelv on his 
 membership of the Royal Academy, and his cer- 
 tainly then fast-rising fame, to secure the attention 
 of the print-buying public. 
 
 The Parts appeared at very varying intervals— 
 No. 1 in 1807, Nos. 2 and 3 in 1808, No. 4 in 
 
 1 This was the year of Turner’s appointment as Prohssor of Per- 
 spective to the Royal Academy, and accordingly, on all the plan- of 
 this and several succeeding years, we find P.P. added to the R.A. after 
 his name. 
 
INTRODUCTION . 
 
 XXXI 
 
 1809. Then two years elapsed, and in 1811 came 
 Nos. 5, 6, and 7. The next year, 1812, Nos. 8, 
 9, and 10 appeared ; and with No. 8 was given, 
 gratis, the Frontispiece. 
 
 Four years now passed, during which Turner 
 exhibited (but did not sell) some of his more 
 important pictures — the exquisite and still happily 
 unimpaired “ Frosty Morning ; ” the more ambi- 
 tious “ Dido and Eneas/' and “ Dido building 
 Carthage/’ both showing the still strong spirit 
 of rivalry of Claude, then the idol of the English 
 connoisseur ; and also the grand and lovely “ Cross- 
 ing the Brook,” perhaps the finest landscape the 
 world had yet seen. He had also begun for Cooke, 
 the publisher, a series of Drawings to be engraved 
 for his “ Southern Coast of England.” The pro- 
 duction of Liber was accordingly delayed, and it 
 was not till 1816 that the next Parts, Nos. 11 and 
 12, appeared; the painter’s growing power be- 
 coming very manifest as the work progressed. 
 
 For three years more the publication of Liber 
 was suspended, and in January, 1819, came Parts 
 13 and 14 — the last ever published. 
 
 The original plan had embraced a hundred plates, 
 and only seventy of these had as yet 
 
 The 
 
 appeared. Twentv of the remainder unpublished 
 
 . . * . Plates. 
 
 were in various stages of completion, 
 
 some few apparently all but finished ; but the 
 
 work was stopped, and these twenty coppers laid 
 
XXX 11 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 aside, some to disappear entirely, and the remainder 
 never again to see the light till over fifty years of 
 neglect had nearly ruined them . 1 The ten left to 
 make up the hundred do not appear to have been 
 carried further than the Drawings. Happilv the 
 Drawings for nearly all the Lnpubli.died Plates 
 still exist, and are mostly in fine condition. From 
 them, as well as from the unfinished engravings, 
 we can see how great was their loss to the re- 
 putation of the work. Of this I shall sav more 
 hereafter. 
 
 Liber Studiorum, in fact, had been, as far as 
 
 carried out, added the expressive words, “ Fvcrv- 
 
 1 Turner was often urged in Inter years by his ngext, Mr. Griffiths, 
 as well as by others of his friends, when the published plates of 
 Liber ha I 1 
 
 but he invariably declined. He appears to have been curioudv 
 sensitive about these unpublished plates. A well-known a Jmir.-r and 
 collector of Liber, as well as of Turner’s drawings, h is t . .1*1 me tl. it 
 about 1840 or 18-12 he once went with a common friend to o .11 uj. in th*> 
 painter. On looking round his studio Mr. saw the picture of 
 
 Apuleia in search of Apuleins (nowin the Nation d (i 1 ■ ■ •. . and 
 remarked : “ Ah, there is the subject of my engraving.’’ Turner said : 
 
 “ No, Sir, it has never been engraved.’’ Mr. replied : M Well, I 
 
 think I have the engraving in my portfolio dowi sta re, one of the 
 Liber Studiorum subjects.” Turner still more emphatically d< nied it. 
 Finally he shielded himself by saying that it had never been 
 published. 
 
 Causes 
 
 public appreciation went, a failure, and 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xxxiii 
 
 thing conspires against the work.” How small 
 had been its sale we may judge from the immense 
 number of impressions which he left behind him 
 at his death. After twenty years of litigation over 
 his will, the Court of Chancery, in 1873, sanctioned 
 the sale at Christie’s of all the Prints and Plates 
 which were found among Turner’s effects, and no 
 less than 5,000 impressions of the various Plates of 
 Liber Studiorum — nearly 2,000 of these being in 
 what may be fairly described as fine and even 
 finest States — came to the hammer ! 
 
 The prices asked had not been excessive. At 
 first they were, for each Part, containing five plates, 
 Proofs ll. 5s., Prints 155. : later on they were 
 raised to, Proofs 2 l. 2 s., Prints ll. 15. The causes 
 of the failure lay elsewhere. Turner, though from 
 the first appreciated by his brother artists, was 
 in advance of his age, and was not appreciated 
 by the larger art-loving public till long after the 
 Liber period. Not that landscape art was not 
 cared for in 1807 ; but it was a very different 
 landscape art from Turner’s. Claude, Poussin, 
 
 and Salvator Kosa, whose pictures were then being 
 eagerly bought by English noblemen and wealthy 
 connoisseurs, and the engravings from them as 
 eagerly by the less wealthy public, speaking 
 broadly, presented natural scenery either as a 
 mere background to human actions, or, if they 
 gave it more prominence, it was still with a 
 
 d 
 
XXXIV 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 mingling of classic story, as essential to its interest. 
 The modern love for Nature for her own sake, and 
 the painting her for her own sake, in all her vary- 
 ing and passing moods, — whether by pen, as did 
 Wordsworth, or by brush, as did Turner,— alone, 
 directly, and not subordinated to human interests, 
 had not then arisen, or if it had ari.-n, it was only 
 with a few, and it had not taken hold on the 
 nation generally which it has si nee don**. 
 
 Turner’s own pictures at that time did not as 
 a rule sell, though here and tie r noblemen like 
 Lord Egremo and country gentlemen i Mr. 
 Fawkes of Farnlcy, were able to see his powers, 
 and invited him to stay with them and paint for 
 them. Noi vere t i . ier great Nature pointers 
 
 ot that time much better appreciated. C’rome, 
 who was doing ! is fii work, obtained but 
 small prices, and probably owed more to tin* local 
 interest of his sub , than to an) perception 
 his merits ; nearly all his pictures were bought 
 m Noifolk, and 1 1 is income depended mainly on 
 teaching drawing among the well-to-do families 
 in and around Norwich. Indeed, his painting 
 was chiefly done either on Sundays or during 
 his holidays. Cotman too was supporting himself 
 almost entirely b\ teaching, and found even fewer 
 buyers for his pictures than Crome. Constable, 
 whose landscapes were a year or two later to 
 startle the art-world of Paris, and to revolutionize 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XXXV 
 
 landscape painting in France and through half 
 Europe, was but little thought of at home, and 
 counted himself passing rich in getting a hundred 
 guineas for his large picture of Salisbury Cathedral ; 
 whilst the more artificial work of Poussin, Salvator 
 Eosa, Louth erbourg, Bercliem and the later Dutch- 
 men, was fetching prices which we should now 
 regard as, in comparison, beyond their merits. 
 The Water Colour painters too, who from the 
 first had gone more or less simply to Nature for 
 their inspiration, had but just found courage to 
 gather themselves into a Society, and to open an 
 Exhibition of their own. Therefore, I think, we 
 cannot be surprised at a work which, though it 
 contained much to suit the taste of the day for the 
 so-called “ Classical ” and “ Pastoral” in landscape, 
 yet on the whole was so fresh, so directly and so 
 vigorously natural, as Liber Studiorum, failing to 
 find buyers among a public accustomed to the 
 more conventional and artificial representations 
 of Nature which had been in vogue with the 
 painters of England, no less than with those of 
 France, Holland, and Italy, during the latter half 
 of the century which had just closed. 
 
 Little care seems to have been taken of the 
 unsold prints. Turner still made up 
 sets, chiefly of worn and inferior im- 
 pressions, with here and there a fine 
 First or Second State among them. These sets he 
 
 d 2 
 
XXXVI 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 sold at his house in Queen Ann >Str< < t ' r :i : »• ■ • ,ur- 
 
 teen guineas for ‘Prints,’ and twenty- i n. as 
 
 for the so-called ‘Proofs.’ The tin* on - n>, 
 of which he still possessed considerable numbers, 
 he kept back; and it was imt until after his 
 death that their existence cv< n \. ;.n«-wn. T' 
 
 Engravers’ Proofs, now worth from i : * » : \ 
 
 pounds apiece, wen* sold b\ t ! : ♦ * >n i \« : 
 
 printer, for eight or ten .shillings. 1 And 
 
 Va i r n ia the n8 ue g^ e< of Libel 
 
 V L»er. of u ^ en Turner's pictur< 
 
 and publishers were employing him 
 
 freely in illustrating nt serial work . Things 
 
 however have changed during the la t twenty years. 
 A i t he great S < ’hrist ie’s iu 1 873, aln ady 
 
 alluded to, a single eornph te set 
 and the whole amount realized hv the Liber 
 Studiorum — that is to sav, by about a, 000 Kn- 
 
 * ' V 
 
 gravings and 700 Etchings, exclusive of the eleven 
 unpublished copper* plates- was nearly ei_dit* n 
 thousand pounds. 
 
 Since I s /;!, dealer- and < *< *1 1« ■« - 1 • »rs having th 
 had so exceptional an opportunit\ of filling their 
 portfolios, the prices have, especially for sn-ond- 
 rate impressions, fallen somewhat below those 
 
 * Mr. Halsted writes that lit' w pi^ntly pi king ap, #-v«-n in 
 1841, ordinary Liber prints »\t half-a-crown apic« o, .uid currently 
 selling Engravers’ Proofs for ten shillings. A complete and fine <^t of 
 the work he once knew sold for three pounds. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XXXVll 
 
 which obtained before the sale ; but fine First 
 States of the interesting subjects are to-day worth 
 from four to ten guineas, and fine Second States 
 from two to four guineas each. Some of the rarer 
 plates command even higher prices. Looking at 
 the limited number of good impressions which the 
 most skilfully managed mezzotint plate can have 
 yielded, 1 it is not improbable that, with the 
 growing appreciation of Turner — the growing in- 
 terest in landscape art — and, above all, the growing 
 love of collecting, as wealth and leisure are in- 
 creasing, these prices may be greatly further 
 augmented. 
 
 The reproduction by various methods of the 
 Liber, either partially or as a whole, Repro 
 has been several times attempted. In auctions 
 
 1 of Liber. 
 
 1854 Messrs. Day and Son published 
 fifteen selected plates in lithography, without 
 letterpress. Between 1858 and 1864 Lupton, 
 one of the original engravers and a personal friend 
 of Turner, then an old man, re-etched and engraved 
 on steel, a selection from Liber ; thirty-six plates 
 were announced for publication by Messrs. Colnaghi 
 and Co. 3 with a dedication by permission to Mr. 
 Buskin, but only fifteen were done, and the pro- 
 ject fell through. 2 The Autotype Company has 
 
 1 See Pye’s Memorandum, Appendix B. 
 
 2 A list of those which he engraved will he found in Appendix D. 
 
xxxviii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 photographed and published the whole series, but 
 with very indifferent success. The Science and Art 
 Department has been more fortunate with its 
 photographs of the Original Drawings, which 
 were formerly exhibited at South Kensington. 
 The Etchings however alone appear to lend 
 themselves really well to photograph) ; 1 mezzotint 
 having as yet apparently baffled even those 
 latest and most ingenious methods which are 
 achieving such marked success in reproducing 
 
 O 1 o 
 
 line engraving. The original coppers of' the 
 seventy-one published plates were all destroyed 
 at Messrs. Christie and Manson’s rooms before 
 the Sale in March 1873. 
 
 The ten copper-plates of the l npublished sub- 
 jects which were then sold, were afterwards printed 
 from by the print-sellers and others into whose 
 hands they fell ; but it was found that they had 
 greatly deteriorated during the fifty years they 
 had been laid aside, and the impressions obtained, 
 though fair in some cases, were, as a whole, dis- 
 appointing. 
 
 1 Mr. Ward of Richmond, Mr. Rusk in’s pupil, has well photo- 
 graphed many of the finest Etchings, and Messrs. Lombardi and Co. 
 of Pall Mall East, have also negatives (taken by their predecessors, 
 Messrs. Caldesi and Co.) of some of the rare Unpublished Etchings 
 and Prints. Messrs. Hogarth and Sons, of Mount Street, published 
 some years ago, fine photographs of many of the Drawings for the 
 Unpublished subjects, but I am informed that very few of the 
 negatives now remain. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XXXIX 
 
 It remains but to review the Liber Studiorum 
 as a whole. And here I shall have little to say, for 
 careful study has failed to show me any connected 
 design in the work, and I shall note any 
 points of interest which have suggested ^ e e v ^ r £ f 
 themselves to me, or for which I am 
 indebted to the suggestions of others, when treating 
 of the plates in detail. The only design I can trace 
 is the one I have before alluded to — the exhibition 
 of its author's powers, in every branch of Landscape 
 Art. Just as these powers were, in certain fields 
 unrivalled or unsurpassed, and in certain other 
 fields limited, or wholly inadequate, so shall we 
 find in the Liber, Turner’s strength or his weak- 
 ness manifested. There are many plates which 
 none but he could have done, and there are a few 
 of which it is not perhaps too much to say, none 
 but he would have done. 
 
 The influence of other masters on him is often 
 clearly apparent. Turner was too great an artist 
 to be above adopting what seemed to him good 
 in the work of his predecessors. Apart from the 
 direct rivalry of Claude, which, as we have seen, 
 originated the Liber Studiorum and is distinctly 
 to be traced throughout it, we can, I think, with- 
 out difficulty see also the effect of his study and 
 rivalry of Gainsborough, of Wilson, of Cuyp, of 
 W. Vandevelde, of Titian, and of Salvator Rosa 
 -—possibly also of Rembrandt. 
 
xl 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Mr. Ruskin has pointed out (M. P. vol. i. p. 12o) 
 that although the work was produced after Turner 
 had visited Switzerland and the continent of 
 Europe, the proportion of English to foreign sub- 
 jects in it is more than two to one ; and in the 
 same place he compares their different treatment 
 by Turner. The passage is too long for insertion 
 here, but will be read with great interest. 
 
 To return — beyond the design 1 have before 
 mentioned I am unable to see any one domi- 
 nating idea or key-note in the work ; not even 
 any one especial bent of mind, consciously or 
 unconsciously manifesting itself in t he way in 
 which its various subjects are treated. 
 
 I am aware that in saying this 1 am difife ring 
 from the distinctly opposite opinion which Mr. 
 Ruskin, the great exponent of Turner, has formed 
 and has recorded. That opinion, which every 
 student will at once and as a matter of course 
 desire to know, is summed up in the passage of 
 consummate beauty at the close of the last volume 
 of Modern Painters (vol. v. p. 330 ), which 1 quote 
 below. 
 
 Mr. Ruskin cites the Liber as evidence of the 
 prevailing sadness of Turner’s mind. He says 
 
 “ Take up the Liber Studiorum, and observe how this 
 feeling of decay and humiliation gives solemnity to all its 
 simplest subjects ; even to his view of daily labour. 1 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xli 
 
 have marked its tendency in examining the design of the 
 ‘ Mill and Lock/ but observe its continuance through the 
 book. There is no exultation in thriving city or mart, 
 or in happy rural toil, or harvest gathering. Only the 
 grinding at the mill, and patient striving with hard con- 
 ditions of life. Observe the two disordered and poor farm- 
 yards, cart, and ploughshare, and harrow rotting away; 
 note the pastoral by the brook side, with its neglected 
 stream, and haggard trees, and bridge with the broken 
 rail ; and decrepit children — fever struck — one sitting 
 stupidly by the stagnant stream, the other in rags, and 
 with an old man’s hat on, and lame, leaning on a stick. 
 Then the ‘ Hedging and Ditching,’ with its bleak sky and 
 blighted trees, hacked, and bitten, and starved by the clay 
 soil into something between trees and firewood ; its 
 meanly-faced, sickly labourers, pollard labourers, like the 
 willow trunk they hew; and the slatternly peasant- 
 woman, with worn cloak and battered bonnet — an English 
 Dryad. Then the Water-Mill, beyond the fallen steps, 
 overgrown with the thistle : itself a ruin, mud-built at 
 first, now propped on both sides ; the planks torn from its 
 cattle shed; a feeble beam, splintered at the end, set 
 against the dwelling-house from the ruined pier of the 
 watercourse ; the old mill-stone — useless for many a day 
 — half buried in slime, at the bottom of the wall; the 
 listless children, listless dog, and the poor gleaner bringing 
 her single sheaf to be ground. Then the ‘ Peat Bog,’ with 
 its cold, dark rain, and dangerous labour. And last and 
 chief, the mill in the valley of the Chartreuse. Another 
 than Turner would have painted the convent, but he had 
 no sympathy with the hope, no mercy for the indolence, of 
 tire monk. He painted the mill in the valley. Precipice 
 overhanging it, and wilderness of dark forest round ; 
 blind rage and strength of mountain torrent rolled beneath 
 it, — calm sunset above, but fading from the glen, leaving 
 
xlii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 it to its roar of passionate waters and sighing of pine- 
 branches in the night. 
 
 “ Such is his view of human labour. Of human pride, 
 see what records. Morpeth Tower, rootless and black ; 
 gate of old Winchelsea wall, the Hock of sheep driven 
 round it, not through it, and Rievaulx choir, and Kirkstall 
 crypt ; and Dunstanborough, wan above the sea ; and 
 Chepstow, with arrowy light through traceried windows ; 
 and Lindisfarne, with failing height of wasted shaft and 
 wall ; and last and sweetest, Raglan, in utter solitude, 
 amidst the wild wood of its own pleasance ; the towers 
 rounded with ivy, and the forest roots choked with under- 
 growth, and the brook languid amidst lilies and sedge9. 
 Legends of gray knights and enchanted ladies keeping the 
 woodman’s children away at the sunset. 
 
 “ These are Ids types of human pride. Of human love: 
 Rrocris, dying by the arrow; llesperie, by the vipers fang; 
 and Rizpah, more than dead, beside her children. 
 
 “ Such are the lessons of the Liber Studiorum. Silent 
 always with a bitter silence, disdaining to tell his meaning, 
 when he saw there was no ear to receive it, Turner only 
 indicated his purpose by slight words of contemptuous 
 anger, when he heard of any one’s trying to obtain this 
 or the other separate subject as more beautiful than the 
 rest. ‘ What is the use of them,’ he said, 1 but together { ' 
 The meaning of the entire book was symbolized in the 
 frontispiece, which he engraved with his own hand : Tyre 
 at Sunset, with the Rape of Europa, indicating the sym- 
 bolism of the decay of Europe by that of Tyre, its beauty 
 passing away into terror and judgment (Europa being the 
 mother of Minos and Rhadamanthus).” 
 
 Exquisite, however, as is the beauty aud the 
 poetry of these words — words which once read, can 
 never be forgotten— the charm of their touches 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xliii 
 
 clinging always after to every plate alluded to in 
 them — I nevertheless find myself unable to see sad- 
 ness as the prevailing tone of Liber — unable to lose 
 sight of the many marks of a quite different spirit 
 throughout it — unable even to accept, in the light 
 Mr. Ruskin does, some of the very points he urges. 
 Is there “no exultation in thriving city or mart”? 
 I would point to Basle 1 and to Morjpeth 2 for 
 pleasant renderings of busy life in the streets and 
 on the bridges of town and city ; to London seen 
 from Greenwich 3 lying low on the horizon, its 
 towers and steeples lighted by rays of sunlight, 
 none the less beautiful for the smoke of the city 
 behind them — its ships making their way to and 
 from its crowded docks, the whole scene full of 
 the poetry which such a view of London always 
 has for eyes open to see it. 
 
 And surely there is “happy rural toil” too: 
 Hedging and Ditching , 4 in its bleakness and 
 bareness, does certainly recall the hard struggle 
 of man with nature in an English winter ; but 
 is it not intended only as a foil to the brighter 
 scenes of country work elsewhere ? Place against 
 it the summer Sheep-washing at Salt Hill ; 5 the 
 Ploughing at Eton , 6 where the children, sitting in 
 the glowing sunset, watch with delight the sturdy 
 horses guided by the strong hands of the ploughman, 
 
 1 No. 5. 2 No. 21. 3 No. 26. 4 No. 47. 6 No. 74. 
 
 6 No. 79. 
 
xliv 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 whose evening meal they have brought. Not 
 to speak too of the plenty seen through the door- 
 way of Perribury Mill} where the corn falls 
 through beams of flour-dusted sunlight and the 
 filled sacks are being driven away. There is, also, 
 the rest of harvest gatherers bj T tines aide, under 
 Kingston Bank , 1 and the shepherd idly basking 
 on the warm turf of Hind Head Hill . 3 And if 
 Peat Bog 4 suggests dangerous labour and cold 
 dark rains, is there not the rainbow overarch- 
 ing it ? 
 
 Then too I would ask, does the painting of t lie 
 ruined castle or abbey necessarily imply the pre- 
 vailing sense of human failure which Mr. Ruskin 
 attributes to I urner ■ \\ ould the many painters 
 
 who daily seek these subjects, both for their own 
 beauty and for the almost invariable beauty of 
 their surroundings, consider that this sense,- -of 
 decay — of ruin, not their beauty — is what really 
 attracts them ? 
 
 Pathos we have, solemnity too, and even tragedy, 
 in the Liber; but they are all mingled with delight 
 in sunny pastorals, in pipe and dance, and with 
 calm enjoyment of beauty in earth, sea. and sky, 
 alone, or in the presence of the every-day work- 
 going on around. The ploughman, shepherd, fisher- 
 man, or sailor, are surely all intended to brighten 
 by their presence the scenes of beauty above and 
 
 1 No. 12. 
 
 2 No. 87. 
 
 No. 25. 
 
 4 No. 45. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xlv 
 
 around them. Even the comic element, clumsily 
 though it may be managed, is not wanting. Liber 
 Studiorum, I maintain, was intended to display its 
 author’s whole powers of design, no less than of 
 treatment, — to be, in fact, a mingling of grave and 
 gay, romance and realism, comedy and tragedy, 
 Nature in her sunniest and Nature in her sternest 
 moods ; and it was because it was thus intended 
 to be a complete, not a one-intentioned work, that 
 Turner objected, as undoubtedly he did, 1 to its 
 being sold in any but a complete form. 
 
 One word as to the meanings which will be 
 found suggested hereafter with certain plates. To 
 some they may appear fanciful or mistaken ; but 
 I am convinced that no one can study Turner’s 
 whole life-work without clearly seeing that there 
 was in him a vein of intensest creative poetical 
 imagination, manifest from the first, and increas- 
 ing in strength down to the very close of his 
 career — imagination inarticulate enough in words, 
 but finding its outlet in giving ideas, sug- 
 gestions, connections, and contrasts in his work, 
 and even in those details which at first sight may 
 seem mere matters of course or of accident. A 
 recent critic (Times, March 20th, 1878), writing 
 
 * 1 Mr. Halsted tells me that Turner, once coming to his shop in Bond 
 Street, found fault with him for breaking up sets of the Liber ; and 
 when he heard that some plates sold habitually much better than 
 others, he grunted out “ A pack of geese ! a pack of geese ! Don’t they 
 know what Liber Studiorum means 1 ” 
 
xlvi 
 
 INTRODUCTIOy. 
 
 of Mr. Buskin’s Turner Drawings then on view in 
 Bond Street, and of his Notes on them, has so 
 well expressed all this that 1 quote his words : 
 
 “It is often said that the painter used to express good- 
 Immourecl astonishment at the fine things his ardent and 
 subtle critic found in his pi whi 
 
 intended. He may have said jo, thou is certain fi 
 other sources that no painter ever did put into his work 
 more subtle, < it emed to common minds, far-fetched 
 signs and symbols, than Turner, and that the danger is 
 rather of missing what there is in them of this kind, than 
 of over-stating or over-subtilizing it. . . . 
 
 “ We m ly t all < profit these reve- 
 
 lations of Turner by the light of Kurkin’s torch, sure that 
 it will let us mi'" no beauty, it' up some that 
 
 painter never was aware of And what if it hould ! A > 
 a % eat man's in vent 
 own , so the meaning of a great 
 
 by his expressed or palpable intentions. There is a har- 
 mony between the in ig ' both , and N 
 
 opens out an infinite range of significance and <uj>]H>rts an 
 infinite variety of interpretations.'' 
 
 But of all the meaning, and all the value of tin- 
 work, every student ot the Liber will form his own 
 opinion. 1 may venture safely to say that the 
 closer his study, the keener will be his pleasure, 
 the greater the impression of the power of its 
 author, the stronger the sense of his personal 
 presence throughout the work. 
 
 And, so great is the havoc which time and sun- 
 light are making with his pictures and drawings. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xlvii 
 
 it is not impossible that it may be ultimately the 
 only unimpaired monument of Turner’s fame. 
 
 Liber Studiorum happily we may rejoice in as 
 a permanent heritage for future generations, to be 
 regarded possibly, hereafter, as the supreme con- 
 tribution of the nineteenth century — the first great 
 century of Landscape Art — to the choicest stores 
 of pure Art Engraving — to be treasured in the 
 best and most select portfolios of the future, with 
 the work of Mantegna and Marc Antonio, of 
 Holbein and Durer, of Rembrandt and Mery on. 
 

 
 
 
 
CATALOGUE 
 
 OF 
 
 LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
CATALOGUE 
 
 OF 
 
 LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 In this Catalogue I have followed in the numbering of 
 the Plates, the order observed in the Burlington Pine 
 Arts Club Catalogue of 1872. 
 
 Many of the Plates were issued without any titles ; 
 these I have mostly called by the names by which they 
 are generally known, but in one or two instances I have 
 ventured to alter them for reasons which I have given 
 when describing them. All titles except Turner’s own 
 are printed in italic capitals. 
 
 I have not attempted to deal with the numerous 
 Engravers’ Proofs scattered in various collections, but have 
 commenced my description of each Plate with its State 
 at the time when it was regarded by Turner as complete, 
 and, as such, was issued by him to his subscribers. In 
 one or two instances {Loch Fyne , ISTo. 35, for example) 
 this cannot be fixed with absolute certainty, as I believe 
 Turner introduced alterations after the Plate had been 
 looked upon as finished, all the letters added, and probably 
 a few impressions sold. This uncertainty, however, occurs 
 in one or two cases only. 
 
4 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 Id describing tlie States, I have been compelled to rely 
 mainly upon wliat I call their external evidence, i.e. 
 marks added purposely by Turner to denote that retouches 
 or alterations had been made. 'Where, however, I can see 
 distinct and unmistakeable internal evidence, — i.e. changes 
 in effect in the plate itself, apparent in every impression — 
 I have also noted them. But experience has shown me 
 how much impressions of the same State will vary — 
 from the wearing of the copper at each printing, from the 
 difference in the colour and consistency of the ink em- 
 ployed, possibly also from difference in the absorbing 
 power of the paper, and certainly from the greater or 
 less care bestowed on the printing. And it will be found 
 that variations of this kind, apparent at once to an eye 
 accustomed to Liber, or to anyone who compares two 
 impressions of the same Plate, cannot be reduced to 
 definitions sufficiently accurate and unvarying for a 
 Catalogue. 
 
 In the Etchings l have noted any differing States where 
 I have been able to trace them ; but their rarity, and the 
 consequent difficulty of comparison, have prevented my 
 acquiring a knowledge which I can consider exact. 
 
 I have added to the notices of many of the Plates, anv 
 facts concerning them which have seemed to me likely 
 to be of interest, as well as, in certain cases, suggestions 
 as to their meaning, some my own, some for which I am 
 indebted to others ; and especially I have followed what 
 appeared to me the excellent example of the Burlington 
 Fine Arts Club Catalogue, of quoting anything notable 
 which Mr. Kuskin has said of Liber Studiorum, although 
 in certain instances I have not been able to a<u-ee with 
 
 O 
 
 him. 
 
LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 5 
 
 It should be borne in mind that the distinguishing 
 marks of the last State described (which State at 
 first may have been, if not a good, yet at all events a 
 fair representation of the original design) were allowed 
 to remain on impressions taken when the copper-plates 
 were utterly worn out. At the end of the Turner 
 Sale in 1873 a number of impressions, which were the 
 merest ghosts of Liber, were sold, and many very inferior 
 sets were issued during the painter’s lifetime. These very 
 late impressions were printed on a much thicker, smoother 
 paper. 
 
 Purchasers will find it needful to be on their guard 
 against the dishonest removal of the external marks 
 (i.e. in the margin, lettering, &c.) referred to above. 
 
 The following monograms are occasionally to be met 
 with on Liber plates : — 
 
 "With the signature Mary Constance Clarke, both 
 
 on the back. These are from the celebrated collection of the 
 late Mr. Stokes. 
 
 (2) W.S. A plain impressed mark, generally in the lower 
 margin, inside the plate mark. These are usually Engravers’ 
 Proofs and belonged to Say, the engraver. 
 
 (3) 
 
 This cypher was impressed (plain) across the 
 
 lower line of every impression, whether Proof, Etching, or 
 Engraving, which appeared at the Turner Sale in 1873. The 
 initials are those of J. M. W. Turner. 
 
 . *In every description, the direction is that of the 
 spectator. W T hat he sees on his right or left is what 
 he will find described as right or left in the Catalogue. 
 
 * 
 
6 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 No. 1. THE FRONTISPIECE. 
 
 Published May 23rd, 1812 , by J. M. W. Turner , Queen 
 Ann Street West. Dream , Etched, and the centre Engraved 
 by J. M. W. Turner Esq. It. A. P.P. Engraved by J. C. 
 Easting. 
 
 A central picture (4 in. by 2] in.) of Tyre with the Rape of Europa. 
 A castle, temple, and various buildings on the left above the sea ; 
 Europa on the bull, to the right ; figures on the shore in the centre 
 foreground. The picture backed by a framework of two tiers of 
 arches, the lower one interlaced. Above, a label bearing “ Liber 
 Studiorum” in white letters. On the left, a scroll with the names of 
 ten of the engravers of the work. Below, flowers, plants, fish, and 
 various objects, among which is a .-done on which a peacock is perched. 
 On the right, a fragment of a lar_*> carved cornice. 
 
 In the margin, at the top, “This Frontispiece to,” and at the foot, 
 “ is most respectfully presented to the Subscribers by J. M. W. 
 Turner.” 
 
 The Etching. 
 rare. 
 
 First State. Tho centre blank. Excessively 
 
 The Etching. Second State. The picture in tho centre 
 etched; but before tho outline of tho castle. Very rare. 
 
 The Etching. Third State. Tho outline of tho castle added. 
 
 Tho variations in tho Published States are entirely in the 
 central picture, the border and framework remaining tho 
 same throughout, though showing the usual loss of depth 
 and richness as t he printing went on. The centre was 
 Turner’s own work, aud the mezzotinting was so extremely 
 fugitive that hardly any two impressions of tho same State 
 are precisely alike. The distinctions below are tho best I 
 am able to give. No other plate is so baffling. 
 
 First Published State. Before the mark in the margin. The 
 sea dark, showing a white line of surf all round : dark 
 under-surfaces give a brilliant effect to the bright clouds 
 
LIBER ST U DIOR TJM. 
 
 7 
 
 in the sky. All these dark parts rapidly wore away, and 
 fine impressions of this State are extremely rare. 
 
 Second State. A single diagonal stroke, at the left lower 
 corner in the margin. The sea worn, and showing no 
 white line of surf ; the light clouds very faint. 
 
 Third State. The same mark as in the Second State. The 
 sea darkened in patches, but showing no white line of surf. 
 Fresh dark patches also on the temple on the left. The 
 foreground considerably lightened. The light clouds in 
 the sky a little altered, and rays of light added, falling 
 obliquely from the right upper corner. 
 
 Fourth State. The mark at the left lower corner completed 
 to a capital A. Much worn throughout. No fresh work. 
 The lights in the castle seldom visible. 
 
 Fifth State. The same mark in the margin as in the Fourth 
 State. Reworked throughout. The sea dark, and a dis- 
 tinct white line of surf again visible. The sky entirely 
 altered, — the soft light clouds replaced by numerous large 
 patches of white cloud, having a hard, scraped effect. The 
 border loses all richness in the shadows. 
 
 A series of Sketches for the Frontispiece exist — the two 
 earliest are very slight pen-drawings, one on the back, and 
 the other on the front of a sheet of paper in the possession 
 of Mr. J. E. Taylor. In general idea the border is similar 
 to what was afterwards engraved ; but the centre has an 
 entirely different subject — a ruined castle on the sea-shore. 
 
 Mr. Gambier Parry possesses what was probably the next 
 stage— an Etching of the whole border and framework of the 
 plate, and in the centre the pencil sketch of the Rape of 
 Europa, &c., but in the opposite direction to that in which 
 it afterwards appeared ; the cause of the subsequent reversing 
 being doubtless the want of harmony between the lines of 
 the subject in the centre and those of the framework. 
 
8 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 Mr. Henry Vaughan possesses a Drawing in ink and bistre 
 over a completed Etching, evidently the guide for the engraver 
 of the mezzotint work of the framework and border. 
 
 The exquisite and gem-like beauty ot‘ the central picture 
 can only be seen in the very earliest impressions. It was 
 entirely Turner’s own work, and like nearly all his mezzo- 
 tinting, extremely fugitive. Probably not more than six 
 or eight fine copies exist. 
 
 It will be observed that the names of two of the 
 engravers of Liber are missing from the roll on the left. 
 F. C. Lewis, whose brief connection with the work has 
 already been explained , 1 had only engraved one plate ; 
 and Thomas Lupton, at the time the Frontispiece was 
 issued, had not begun to work for Turner. 
 
 1 Introduction, |»p. v iii — x. 
 
LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 9 
 
 PART I. 
 
 ISSUED JANUARY 20, 1807. 
 
 No. 2. THE BRIDGE AND COWS, [p] 
 
 Published , as the Act directs , by J. M. W. Turner , Harley 
 Street. Dr aim and Etched by J. M. W. Turner R.A . 
 Engraved by C. Turner. 
 
 On the right, half-way across, a bank of trees over a shallow stream. 
 In the centre a rude bridge of planks with a broken rail ; below it 
 five cows standing in the water and one lying on the left bank. On 
 the left bank, several figures of children. On the extreme left, a road 
 and trees. Beyond the bridge, a water-mill. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. The initial letter (P) a tall, slender, 
 open capital, about T U of an inch from the top of the 
 plate. 
 
 Second State. The same letter filled up with vertical lines. 
 The foliage loses its gradations and becomes heavy. 
 
 Third State. The initial letter re-engraved ; open as in the 
 First State, but shorter and broader and with a dot in the 
 bow. It is now about J of an inch from the top of the 
 plate.. 
 
 The transparency of the water lost ; the foliage from the 
 loss of light becomes nearly uniform in tone. Generally 
 . printed in a red tone of ink. Very dull and inferior. 
 
 The Drawing is in the National Gallery ; the Engraving is 
 reversed from it. I am informed that an earlier sketch, appa- 
 rently direct from nature, is in the possession of Mr.. Strutt, 
 of Belper. 
 
10 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 The Etching of this plate is one of the most beautiful 
 of the series, and is carried so far that it forms a complete 
 picture without any engraving. I even doubt if it does 
 not lose by the addition of mezzotint. The somewhat 
 heavy masses of shade in the engraving hide the earlier 
 grace of line and harmony of composition. In both Print 
 and Etching the superb drawing of the pollard-trees on 
 the right cannot fail to be noticed. The cows are no 
 better, though no worse, than Turner’s cows usually are. 
 
 The Bridge and Coins has been thought to show the 
 influence of Gainsborough on Turner, just as in the next 
 plate that of Claude is at once apparent. 
 
LIBER STUDIO RUM. 
 
 11 
 
 No. 3. THE WOMAN AND TAMBOURINE. 
 
 Published, as the Act directs, by J. M. W. Turner, Harley 
 Street. Drawn and Etched by J. M. VI. Turner B.A. 
 Engraved by C. Turner . 
 
 A classical landscape with a river flowing from the right. On the 
 right bank, houses, with the ruins of a castle above, showing through 
 trees. In the centre, a ruined bridge of which two arches only remain; 
 on the left, a road winding between trees. In the left foreground, 
 the seated figure of Pallas, holding by the hand a child who is 
 dancing ; beside them stands a woman playing on a tambourine. 
 Behind, goats browsing. Hills in the distance. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. The initial letters (E. P.) tall, slender, 
 open capitals, T y of an inch from the top of the plate. 
 
 Second State. The same letters filled up with vertical lines. 
 The rich depth of the shadows is lost throughout, especially 
 in the foliage behind the square tower above the right arch 
 of the bridge. This tower which in the First State is a 
 distinct high light, is in the Second State of the same depth 
 of tone as the foliage round it. There is a general dulness 
 of effect in this State. 
 
 Third State. The initial letters re -engraved ; open as in the 
 First State, but shorter and broader. They are now about 
 y 3 y of an inch from the top of the plate. Very dull and 
 * heavy. 
 
 Fourth State. The initial letters as in the Third State, but 
 with a dot added in the bow of the P. Considerably 
 reworked and brightened. The men in the boat on the right 
 hand and the reflection of them, taken out white. Light 
 spaces on the road on the left, which is now seen to wind 
 nearly to the top of the hill. Early impressions of this 
 
12 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 State appear to me finer than average Second and Third 
 
 States. 
 
 The Drawing is in the National Gallery. 
 
 The Woman and Tambourine at once recalls several of 
 the subjects of the Liber Veritatis, and must clearly have 
 been suggested by them. It would look too as if, just 
 as the painter has taken Claude as his model, so the 
 engraver has taken Earlorn. In the Etching, the tree 
 drawing is very characteristic of Turner, but in the Print, 
 the added mezzotint work on the boughs is exactly in 
 EarlonTs manner. Charles Turner was new to landscape 
 work, and having no style of his own, nor having as yet 
 entered into Turner’s manner, had apparently gone to Liber 
 Veritatis to study tree engraving. 
 
 It will be observed that the seated female figure on the 
 left wears a helmet, and near her, on tin* ground, are a 
 shield, on which can be plainly seen the Gorgon’s head, and 
 by it the spear and distaff of Pallas. The helmet is to be 
 seen in the Drawing, but the shield, spear, and distaff were 
 added when the Etching was made. I am indebted to a 
 friend for the suggestion that Turner originally intended to 
 represent the Goddess of Wisdom at play with a child 
 (the God of Love ?) who is dancing to the accompaniment 
 of the tambourine, and that he added the cast-aside shield 
 and other emblems to emphasize his meaning. 
 
 In early impressions the plate is very beautiful, and 
 has, perhaps, more of the best characteristics of Claude 
 than any other of the Liber Studiorum. We see just his 
 tranquil, sunny atmosphere, and his effect of finely 
 graduated, wide-stretching distance The figures too have 
 more grace of form and movement than Turner often 
 succeeded in giving. It has not however found favour 
 with Mr. Luskin, who V /’.. voL iii. p. 824] describes it 
 as “one of the worst and feeblest studies in the book, 
 owing the principal part of its imbecilities to Claude.” 
 
LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 13 
 
 No. 4. 
 
 FLINT CASTLE— VESSELS UNLOADING. 
 
 Published, as the Act directs, by J. M. W. Turner, Harley 
 Street. Dravm and Etched by J. M. W. Turner Ii.A. 
 Engraved by C. Turner. 
 
 On the right, in shallow water, two smacks unloading ; men with 
 carts and horses close by ; and on the left, other men on shore loading 
 pack-horses. Beyond, on the horizon, the ruins of a castle, with hills 
 sloping upwards to the left, and more boats also stranded and being 
 unloaded. Rays of light strike from* the right upper corner of the 
 plate. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. The initial letter (M) a tall, slender, 
 open capital, T l 6 of an inch from the top of the plate. 
 
 Second State. The same letter tilled up with vertical lines. 
 The sky and the shadows throughout fainter, but this State 
 is still often good. 
 
 Third State. The initial letter re- engraved ; open as in the 
 First State, but shorter and broader. It is now about l of 
 an inch from the top of the plate. 
 
 The sky reworked and very dull. The light cloud over the 
 boat on the right is much suffused and darkened, while the 
 horizontal clouds above it are less dark. These two altera- 
 tions completely destroy the fine original effect. The rays 
 of light are also less defined. 
 
 The Drawing is in the National Gallery. The Engraving is 
 reversed from it. 
 
 Pleasant and breezy in effect. The sky still somewhat 
 baffling the engraver, but showing more of Turner’s 
 handling than the last. The lines of the composition 
 
14 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 converging to and focussed by the sun’s rays are particu- 
 larly pleasant. 
 
 Flint Castle and Sea-shore were treated again by Turner 
 in the ‘England and Wales;’ but there the mistake of 
 reversing the drawing was avoided. The Castle itself he 
 had also drawn as early as 1797, as an illustration 
 (engraved by Walker) to the ‘ Copper-plate Magazine/ 
 
 A comparison between the work of the three periods — 
 1797, 1807, and (say) 1827, in these three Prints, is very 
 instructive, as showing the progress and development of 
 the painter’s powers. 
 
LIBER STUDIO RUM. 
 
 15 
 
 No. 5. BASLE. [a] 
 
 Published, as the Act directs, by J. M. W. Turner, Harley 
 Street. Drawn and Etched by J. M. W. Turner P.A. 
 Engraved by C. Turner. 
 
 In the centre a wooden bridge on six piers crossing a wide river, 
 on which are many boats and rafts. On the right bank, the 
 town ; figures below. Above, rise the two spires of the cathedral. 
 Beyond the bridge, a church, houses, and distant hills. The sun, 
 partly hidden by light clouds, throws rays downwards over the 
 houses and distant scenery. 
 
 The Etching. First State. 
 
 The Etching. Second State. The difference, I believe, is in 
 the spires of the cathedral. 
 
 First Published State. The initial letter (A) and the title 
 tall, slender, open capitals. The initial letter is °f an 
 inch from the top of the plate. 
 
 Second State. The same letter filled up with vertical lines. 
 Early impressions of this State are often very good. 
 
 Third State. The initial letter and the title re-engraved ; 
 open as in the First State, but shorter and broader. The 
 initial letter is of an inch from the top. Reworked and 
 heavy ; generally printed in a redder ink. 
 
 Fourth State. The initial letter and the title as in the 
 Third State, with the addition of a dot in the upper bow 
 of the B of Basle. Much worn, and the mezzotint 
 heavily reworked, giving a generally darker effect ; many 
 small rounded clouds added over the farthest high gable 
 on the right bank. In earlier States the clouds here are 
 all in horizontal lines. 
 
 Fifth State. Dots in both bows of the B of Basle. 
 
 I have no information as to the present whereabouts of 
 the Drawing. It was sold some years ago by Mr. Halsted. 
 
16 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 Basle, though not one of the most striking subjects of 
 the Liber, is by no means one of the least beautiful. 
 Fine impressions have throughout just the look of diffused 
 sunlight on a still, warm, autumn afternoon . 1 Notice 
 especially the beauty and the truthfulness of the effect, 
 where, beyond the bridge, the sun’s rays, which in the 
 foreground are much subdued by the floating clouds, light 
 up, and steep in a warm glow, the houses, trees, and 
 distant steeples. 
 
 One thing, however, Turner has not thought fit to give 
 — probably because it would have lessened the perfect 
 sense of calm the plate now suggests — that swift “arrowy" 
 flow of the river, which can hardly have failed to strike 
 and to fascinate all who have lingered over the glorious 
 view from the terrace of Basle cathedral. 
 
 1 On the margin of an early Engraver's Proof in the jiossession of 
 Mr. Addington is written, apparently by Charles Turner, “ Moonlight 
 afterwards altered to sunlight/' This, however, appears to me to have 
 been impossible. Though the Drawing is not available for comparison, 
 I would point out that tho Etching contains all the boats and figures, 
 which would scarcely have been the case had a moonlight effect originally 
 been planned. 
 
LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 17 
 
 No. 6. JASON, [h] 
 
 Published, as the Act directs, by J. M. W. Turner, Harley 
 Street. Drawn and Etched by J . M. W. Turner E.A . 
 Engraved by C. Turner. 
 
 In the centre a dark cavern in the slope of a hill, in the depth 
 of which a coil of a large serpent is seen. Across the foreground, 
 bare trunks of large trees, over which the armed figure of Jason, 
 with a sword in his right hand, is advancing towards the serpent. 
 On the left, broken stumps of other trees. Above the hill, dark 
 woods ; a break of light just over the serpent. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. The initial letter (H) a tall, 
 slender, open capital, about of an inch from the top of 
 the plate. The title in open capitals, the lines of which 
 are of equal thickness. No measurements given. 
 
 Second State. The initial letter filled up with vertical lines. 
 The title-letters have the right-hand line thicker than the 
 left. No measurements. 
 
 Duller in effect throughout, the lighter parts having lost their 
 brightness, and the darker their depth. 
 
 Third State. The initial letter open as in the First State, 
 but shorter and slightly broader, and nearly Ah of an inch 
 from the top. The letters of the title as in the Second 
 State with ‘3 by 4’ added after 4 Jason,’ and 4 Piet. 3 ft. 
 by 4 ’ under 4 Drawn and etched,’ &c. 
 
 Very dull and heavy. 
 
 Fourth State. The initial letter as in the Third State. The 
 letters of 4 Jason’ plain, like the First State, both strokes 
 being of equal thickness. The measurements remain as in 
 the Third State. 
 
 Entirely reworked and very brilliant in effect. The whole 
 of the central part round the serpent, and all the shadows, 
 
 c 
 
 
18 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 darkened ; many bright lights introduced, particularly on 
 the trunks of all the trees and on the foreground. 
 
 This appears to me the finest State of the plate. J know of 
 only four impressions, two of which are in the Print Poom 
 of the British Museum, and one in my own possession. 
 
 Fifth State. The initial and title as in the Fourth State with 
 a dot added in the middle of the ‘o’ of Jason. Very poor 
 and dull, the added work of the preceding State having 
 rapidly worn away . 1 
 
 The Drawing is in the National Gallery. 
 
 The Etching of this plate is exceedingly fine, and is 
 carried further perhaps than any of the others. Mr. 
 Ruskin, in the Elements of Drawing (p. 134), includes 
 it among those most desirable for study. He has also 
 alluded to the plate in various passages in Modern 
 Painters. In vol. iii. p. 324, classing it among the live 
 or six finest subjects of the Liber, he pronounces it as, 
 with them, “ founded first on nature, but modified by 
 fond (the italics are his) imitation of Titian.” In his 
 chapter on “ Imagination Penetrative ” (J/. P. vol. ii. 
 p. 16G), contrasting the treatment by Retsch of a similar 
 subject (illustrations to Schiller’s Kampf mit den Drachm) 
 with Turner’s here, he finely says : — 
 
 “Take up Turner’s Jason, Liber Studiomm, and observe how the 
 imagination can concentrate all this and infinitely more, into one 
 moment. No far forest country, no secret paths, nor cloven hills ; 
 nothing but a gleam of pale horizontal sky, that broods over pleasant 
 places far away, and sends in, through the wild overgrowth of the 
 thicket, a ray of broken daylight into the hopeless pit. No flaunting 
 plumes nor brandished lances, but stern purpose in the turn of the 
 crestless helmet, visible victory in the drawing back of the prepared 
 right arm behind the steady point. No more claws, nor teeth, nor 
 
 1 I have noticed that when heavy mezzotint work was added on the worn 
 copper-plates, in nearly every case it disappeared almost immediately. 
 
LIBER STUD 10 RUM. 
 
 19 
 
 manes, nor stinging tails. We have the dragon, like everything else, 
 by the middle. We need see no more of him. All his horror is in 
 that fearful, slow, griding upheaval of the single coil. Spark after 
 spark of it, ring after ring, is sliding into the light, the slow glitter 
 steals along him step by step, broader and broader, a lighting of funeral 
 lamps one by one, quicker and quicker ; a moment more, and he is 
 out upon us, all crash and blaze, among those broken trunks ; — but he 
 
 will be nothing then to what he is now Now observe in this 
 
 work of Turner that the whole value of it depends upon the character 
 of curve assumed by the serpent’s body ; for had it been a mere 
 semicircle, or gone down in a series of smaller coils, it would have 
 been, in the first case, ridiculous, as unlike a serpent, or, in the second, 
 disgusting, nothing more than an exaggerated viper ; but it is that 
 coming straight at the right hand which suggests the drawing forth 
 of an enormous weight, and gives the bent part its springing look, 
 that frightens us. Again, remove the light trunk on the left, and 
 observe how useless all the gloom of the picture would have been, if 
 this trunk had not given it depth and hollowness. Finally and chiefly, 
 observe that the painter is not satisfied even with all the suggestiveness 
 thus obtained, but to make sure of us, and force us, whether we will 
 or not, to walk his way, and not ours, the trunks of the trees on the 
 right are all cloven into yawning and writhing heads and bodies, and 
 alive with dragon energy all about us ; note especially the nearest 
 with its gaping jaws and claw-like branch at the seeming shoulder ; a 
 kind of suggestion which in itself is not imaginative, but merely fanciful 
 (using the term fancy in that third sense not yet explained, corre- 
 sponding to the third office of imagination) ; but it is imaginative in 
 its present use and application, for the painter addresses thereby that 
 morbid and fearful condition of mind which he has endeavoured to 
 excite in the spectator, and which in reality would have seen in every 
 trunk and bough, as it penetrated into the deeper thicket, the object 
 of its terror.” 
 
 The Picture from which the plate is taken was painted 
 in 1802, and is now in the National Gallery. It is darker 
 than the Print, and the serpent is not nearly so prominent 
 an object. 
 
 c 2 
 
20 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 PART II. 
 
 ISSUED FEBRUARY 20, 1808. 
 
 No. 7. THE SIR A W- YARD . [p] 
 
 London, 'published February 20, 1808, by C. Turner , 50, 
 Warren Street, Fitzroy Square. Drawn and Etched by 
 J. M. W. Turner Esq. li.A. P.P. Engraved by Chas. 
 
 Turner. 
 
 A farm-yard with a barn in the centre, the doors open wide ; trees 
 behind it. On the right, a rick, against which are ladders ; men 
 loading straw to a cart below. Around the cart a group of horses, 
 and bundles of straw on the ground. In the left foreground, a pool ; 
 beyond, a gate, with labourers beside it. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published Staff,. The initial letter (P) an open capital. 
 
 Second State. The initial letter filled up with vertical lines. 
 
 Third State. I he initial letter re engraved, open, as in the 
 hirst State, with a dot added in the bow of the P. 
 
 Reworked considerably, and heavy. The skv loses much of 
 its brilliancy throughout, and especially its clearness on 
 the horizon. 
 
 The Di awing is in the National Oallerv. The Engraving 
 is reversed from it. 
 
 This is the first and probably' the best of the purely* 
 domestic subjects of the Liber. Put though there is a 
 
 m O 
 
 ceitam homely* interest about it, and a certain pleasant 
 effect of space and light on the horizon, we cannot, I 
 think, but feel that I iirner cared little for such scenes, 
 
LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 21 
 
 and we must regret that he thought it needful that Liber 
 should contain examples of them. The attractiveness of 
 animal forms — the chief attractiveness of farm-yard life — 
 men like Morland saw and cared for, and because they 
 cared for it they painted it well; but Turner seems to 
 have missed it altogether : at all events, if he appreciated 
 it, he signally failed in rendering it, — witness his ill-drawn 
 horses here, and his cows, sheep and dogs, elsewhere in 
 Liber. Oddly enough, he generally draws deer and goats 
 — animals associated with the wilder or simpler aspects 
 of nature — far better than those which are only to be 
 found among the direct surroundings of man. 
 
 See also notes on the Farm-yard (No. 17). 
 
22 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 No. 8. 
 
 THE CASTLE ABOVE THE MEADOWS. 
 
 Often called ‘ Oakhampton Castle.’ Qe. P.] 
 
 London , published February 20, 1808, by C. Turner , 50, 
 Warren Street , Fitzroy Square. Drawn and Etched by 
 J. M. W. Turner Esq. E.A. P.P. Engraved by Chas. 
 Turner. 
 
 In the centre, a ruined castle on a high bare rock, closing the view. 
 Meadows in the foreground. On the right, a boy sitting by a stile 
 below tall trees, playing on a pipe. On the left, a group of cows ; 
 trees above the cows and in the middle distance. A hill on the 
 extreme left. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. The initial letters (E. P.) open 
 capitals. 
 
 Second State. The initial letters with a single vertical line 
 inside them. Sometimes very line. 
 
 Third State. The initial letters open as in the First State, 
 but with a dot added in the bow of the P. 
 
 Much worn throughout. The delicate mezzotint work on the 
 castle rock quite gone. Generally printed in a redder ink. 
 
 The Drawing is in the National Gallery. 
 
 In fine impressions one is struck with the pleasant way 
 in which this plate, with distinct gradations, but without 
 harsh divisions, separates itself into foreground, middle 
 distance and furthest distance, each, so to speak, in a 
 separate plan£. The delicate mezzotinting on the castle 
 rock, defining and lighting its hollows and buttress-like 
 crags, and throwing over it a soft haze of distance, appears 
 
LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 23 
 
 to me an extremely fine piece of engraver’s work. The 
 trees are less successful, and lack the beauty they have in 
 the Drawing. Charles Turner’s trees always seem to me 
 somewhat heavy. 
 
 The name of Oakhampton Castle has, I feel sure, been 
 erroneously given to the plate. Turner drew Oakhampton 
 Castle twice afterwards 1 * * — once in the ‘ Rivers of England’ 
 and once in the 4 England and Wales;’ and although he 
 was then far less particular as to topographical accuracy 
 than at this earlier period, the spirit of the scene (a very 
 lovely one) is in each completely rendered. Here, neither 
 the castle itself, the rock on which it stands, nor the 
 surroundings, appear to me to resemble or suggest Oak- 
 hampton. 
 
 1 Turner’s family originally belonged to this part of Devonshire ; his 
 
 father was born at South Molton, and an old lady now living recohects 
 
 her uncle, who was Turner’s first cousin, describing to her the painter’s 
 
 incessant activity in sketching and painting all over the neighbourhood, 
 when visiting him. Oakhampton is not far from South Molton. 
 
24 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 No 9. MT. ST. GOTHARD. [m. s.] 
 
 London, published February 20, 1808, by C. Turner, 50, 
 Warren Street, Fitzroy Square. Brawn and Etched by 
 J. M. TV. Turner Esq. Pi. A. P.P. Engraved by Chas. 
 Turner. 
 
 Rocky mountain slopes descend from the right and left, with a 
 very narrow deep gorge between, which winds beyond further slopes 
 of mountains. High above them, in the distance on the right, pure 
 white snow peaks. In the left foreground, a hollow passage from 
 which a laden mule is emerging ; the figure of the driver seen behind. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. The initial letters (M. S.) and the title 
 in open capitals. 
 
 Second State. The initial letters and the title filled up. A 
 general loss of tone and gradation, especially visible in the 
 dark mass of the precipice on the right : the snow mountains 
 also loso their bright whiteness. 
 
 Third State. The initial letters open, but with a dot in the 
 right member of the M. The title open as in the First 
 State. 
 
 Dull and worn throughout. 
 
 Fourth State. The initial letters as in the Third State ; a dot 
 added in the centre of the ‘ O ’ in ‘ Gothard. ’ 
 
 Altogether worn and inferior. 
 
 The Drawing is in the National Gallery. 
 
 The Etching of this subject is particularly fine — the 
 rock, mountain, and precipice drawing, superb in its truth 
 and freedom of handling. And the engraved plate is 
 not only among the finest of the Liber, but is a notable 
 instance of Turner’s power of conquering difficulties. 
 For we learn from the following pencil instructions, still 
 
LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 25 
 
 remaining in his handwriting, on the margin of a touched 
 proof in the possession of Mr. J. E. Taylor, that the copper 
 had failed in the process of mezzotint working, and proved 
 what is technically called ‘rotten’ in the sky part. Turner 
 writes : — 
 
 “My advice is first to fill up the rotten or half lights in No. 1, to 
 make it an equal tint, hut lighter near No. 2 ; the whole of the snow 
 mountain three degrees lighter, and the lights pure paper (and, if you 
 can, take my lines out). 3. Make darker, and sparkling pieces of snow, 
 but not white ones. 4. Lighter than the sky, tire cloud below. 5. 
 Lighter one degree, and fill up the rotten parts towards the side. 
 5 — 5 Gradually lighter towards 6 ; and yet mind all this mass must 
 be lighter than the mountain. 7. These things being well attended to 
 may save the sky.” 
 
 If proof were needed of the minute care bestowed by 
 the painter on the engraving of the Liber, we have 
 evidence of it here. 
 
 The St. Gothard pass, as Mr. Euskin has pointed out, 
 had always a peculiar attraction for Turner, 1 and he made 
 numberless drawings of it from various points of view. 
 It was to have furnished another subject for Liber — the 
 magnificent Swiss Bridge, known also as the Via Mala 
 (No. 78) — unfortunately one of those which, though nearly 
 completed, were never published. 
 
 The Engraving, possibly owing to the defects in the 
 copper, does not fully bring out the fine perspective of the 
 gallery noticeable in the Drawing. 
 
 1 He says (M. P. vol. v. p. 339, note) : “The pass of the St. Gothard, 
 especially, from his earliest days, had kept possession of his mind, not as 
 a piece of mountain scenery but as a marvellous road ; and the great 
 drawing which I have tried to illustrate with some care in this book, the 
 last he made of the Alps with unfailing energy, was wholly made to show 
 the surviving of this tormented path through avalanche and storm, from 
 the day when he first drew its two bridges, in the Liber Studiorum.” 
 
26 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 No. 10. SHIPS IN A BREEZE, [m] 
 
 In the possession of the Earl of Egremont. 
 
 (Generally known as ‘ The Egremont Sea-Piece.’) 
 
 London , published February 20, 1808, by C. Turner , 50, 
 Warren Street , Fitzroy Square. Drawn and Ftcliecl by 
 J. M. JV. Turner Esq, B.A. I\F. Engraved by Chas. 
 Turner. 
 
 The sea in a fresh breeze. Five ships sailing or tossing in middle 
 distance ; another on the horizon on the right. On the left, the end 
 of a pier, throwing a long shadow over the sea. Light breaking from 
 behind a dark thundercloud above. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. The initial letter (M) an open capital. 
 No measurements given with the title. 
 
 Second State. The initial letter contains a single vertical 
 line. No measurements. Sometimes fairly good. 
 
 Third State. The initial letter open as in the First State. 
 ‘6 by 5 ’ added after the word ‘ Egremont ’ in the title. 
 Often printed in a red ink. Generally worn, and much 
 of the line effect of foam on the waves lost. 
 
 Fourth State. The initial letter and measurements as in the 
 Third State. Dots added in the o’s of both ‘of ’s’ in the 
 title. 
 
 The Drawing is in the National Gallery. 
 
 The fine drawing; of the sea should be noticed in this 
 
 O 
 
 plate, especially the effect of the wind blowing the crests 
 of the waves over. 
 
 Turner’s absolute mastery of sea and wave drawing- 
 had been already shown in his pictures ‘ The Wreck ’ and 
 
LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 27 
 
 ‘ Calais Pier’ — both exhibited in 1803. No other of his 
 great powers appear to me to have been at once so early 
 and so overwhelmingly manifested. All the seas of the 
 Liber are magnificently drawn. And the fact that this 
 early, complete, and rare success in one branch of Art, 
 and that a most difficult one, in no way contented him 
 or hindered him from pressing onwards to successes as 
 rare and as complete in other widely-differing fields, is 
 perhaps one of the strongest grounds for claiming for 
 Turner a place among the very greatest names in Art. 
 How many, we may ask, of the painters of to-day but 
 would have rested here satisfied, and painted none but 
 sea-pieces for the rest of their lives ? 
 
 The sky is the finest that we have yet had. In good 
 impressions the wreaths of light cloud, illuminated by 
 beams breaking from behind the dark thunder-cloud 
 opposed to them, give a very brilliant effect and one very 
 characteristic of Turner. 
 
28 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 No. 11. HOLY ISLAND CATHEDRAL, [a] 
 
 London, 'published February 20, 1808, by C. Turner, 50, 
 Warren Street, Fitzroy Square. Drawn and Etched by 
 J. M. W. Turner Esq. E.A. P.P. Engraved by Chas. 
 Turner. 
 
 The interior of a ruined cathedral, showing three rows of Norman 
 columns and arches. An irregular tier of openings above the pier- 
 arches, and a clerestory with slender lancet windows, all open to the 
 sky. Weeds and fallen stones in the foreground. Two figures 
 between the columns. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. The initial letter (A) and the title in 
 open capitals. 
 
 Second State. The initial letter and the letters of the title 
 contain a single vertical line. Often good, and not much 
 inferior to the First State. 
 
 Third State. The initial letter and the title open as in the 
 First State ; a dot added in the ‘O’ of the title. The 
 dark parts re-worked throughout, and somewhat heavy. 
 Early impressions of this State are, however, often fairly 
 good. 
 
 The Drawing is in the National Gallery. 
 
 Holy Island Cathedral was much more romantically 
 treated by Turner later, in the ‘ England and Wales ’ 
 (Ho. 9). In the Liber he seems to have intended his 
 subjects classed as “ Architectural ” to stand mainly on 
 their architectural merits, with just a little play of light 
 
LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 29 
 
 and shade to enhance their effect. In the ‘ England and 
 Wales ’ his churches and castles were mainly points or 
 centres in a grand general landscape. 
 
 The sharp, firm drawing of the building throughout is 
 very noticeable, especially in the Etching. Nowhere are 
 Turner’s strength and certainty of hand more visible than 
 in the curves and the perspective of the Norman arches 
 of the nave. 
 
30 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 PART III. 
 
 ISSUED JUNE 10, 1808. 
 
 No. 12. PEMBURY MILL, KENT, [p] 
 
 London, published June 10, 1S08, by C. Turner, 50, 
 Warren Street, Fitzrmj Square. Drawn and Etched by 
 J. M. W. Turner Esq. II. A. P.P. Engraved by Chas. 
 Turner. 
 
 In front, the open doorway of a flour-mill ; inside, a man filling 
 sacks. Outside, to the left the mill-wheel, with a pigeon-cote above; 
 in the centre, a dog gnawing a bone ; to the right, a cart being loaded. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. The initial letter (P) a tall, broad, 
 open capital. The title spilt ‘ Pern bury in open capitals, 
 rhe word ' Proof faintly etched above tho initial letter, 
 and at the left lower corner in the margin. 
 
 Second State. The initial letter (P) and the title filled with 
 horizontal strokes; tho title spelt ‘Pembury.’ ‘Proof’ 
 erased. Generally fine, and often little inferior to the 
 First State. 
 
 Third State. The initial letter open as in the First State, 
 but much smaller. The title spelt ‘ Penbury. ’ Generally 
 printed in a redder ink. 
 
 In the collection of Mr. J. E. Taylor is a very late and 
 worn Third State, touched all over by Turner for alterations ; 
 but I have never met with any example of a Fourth State to 
 show that the alterations had been transferred to the plate. 
 
 The Drawing is in the National Gallery. 
 
LIBER STUD I OR UM. 
 
 31 
 
 Little that is favourable can be said for this, another 
 of the purely domestic subjects of Liber. The pigeons 
 fluttering about the cote, the finely-drawn vine clustering 
 over the doorway, and the fast-filling sacks within, are 
 intended no doubt to suggest the peace and contentment 
 of every-day English country life. But the dog is a 
 miserable object; the drawing of the door and the mill- 
 wheel appears to me also faulty, and the whole plate 
 has a cramped look. 
 
32 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 No. 13. 
 
 THE BRIDGE IN MIDDLE DISTANCE . 
 
 [e. p.] ( Also called ‘ The Sun between Trees!) 
 
 London, published June 10, 180S, by C. Turner , 50, 
 Warren Street, Fitzroy Square. Brawn and etched by 
 J. M. W. Turner , Esq. RA. P.P. Engraved by Chets. 
 Turner. 
 
 A classical landscape with a river and a bridge of eight arches in 
 mid-distance ; beyond, a wide stretch of country, over which the sun 
 is setting. In the foreground, on the left, a road with a group of 
 figures seated, one playing on a pipe ; on the right, trees casting 
 shadows towards the spectator. The sky throughout in aquatint. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. The initial letters (E. P.) in open 
 capitals about O. of an inch from tho top of the plate. 
 
 ‘ Proof ’ in italics at the left lower corner in the margin, 
 close to the plate mark. The sun clearly defined light, 
 but not white, against a slightly darker sky. 
 
 Second State. The initials filled up with horizontal strokes. 
 
 ‘ Proof ’ erased. The sun quite white against an almost 
 white sky (the aquatinting having worn), and not nearly 
 so clearly defined as in the First State. The general effect 
 still often fairly good. 
 
 Third State. The initials open as in the First State, but 
 smaller, and -A- of an inch from the top of the plate. 
 The sun scarcely to bo distinguished, the sky having be- 
 come almost uniformly light. 
 
 Fourth State. The initials as in the Third State. The 
 sky reworked apparently in mezzotint, and splotchy. Two 
 
LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 33 
 
 rays strike upwards from the sun, which is once more 
 
 visible against the darkened space around it. 
 
 The Drawing is in the National Gallery. I am informed 
 that an earlier sketch is in the possession of Mr. Strutt of 
 Belper. 
 
 This plate has been condemned by Mr. Kuskin as one 
 of those “founded first on nature but modified by forced 
 imitation of Claude.” (M. P. vol. iii. p. 324.) Despite, 
 however, the influence of Claude, and despite a certain 
 faultiness in the tree-drawing (Charles Turner, it appears 
 to me, never fully mastered trees), it may be doubted 
 if we can afford to despise the pleasant effect here of still, 
 golden, evening light diffused over the wide-stretching 
 landscape : the rendering of atmosphere and distance also 
 are worthy of Claude at his best. Arcadia, if a dream, is 
 surely a pleasant dream. 
 
 Mr. Thornbury has pointed out the fact that one of the 
 trees in the foreground casts apparently two if not three 
 distinct shadows. This is, however, purely the engraver’s 
 error, though it is strange it was not detected by Turner. 
 The shadows are all perfectly correct in the Drawing, and 
 on comparing it with the Print it is easy to see how the 
 mistake arose. Two outlines enclosing one shadow in the 
 Drawing, have been converted by the engraver into two 
 separate, thinner shadows ; and the third shadow, which 
 was meant by Turner for that of one of the upper boughs, 
 has, by its direction being only a little varied, been made 
 parallel with the already duplicated lower shadow, and 
 has thus completely lost its original intention. 
 
 The sky, it will be noticed, is engraved in aquatint. In 
 his manuscript notes on Liber Studiorum, in the Print 
 Eoom of the British Museum, Pye, the late eminent en- 
 graver, cites the Second State of this plate as an example 
 to show that, in engraving, absolute white is not the most 
 effective method of rendering the sun. 
 
 n 
 
34 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 No. 14. DUNSTANBOBOUGH 1 CASTLE, [a] 
 
 The picture in the possession of W. Penn, Esq. 
 
 London , published. June 10, 1808, by C. Turner , 50, 
 Warren Street , Fitzroy Square. Drawn and Etched by 
 J. M. W. Turner Esq. Ii.A. P.P. Engraved by C. 
 Turner. 
 
 The ruins of a large castle on a hill on the left above the sea. 
 Below the castle, a cottage with a light in one window ; near it the 
 skeleton of a stranded ship. Morning light breaking from the ri ,r ht. 
 The sky throughout in aquatint. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. The initial letter (A) a tall open 
 capital, nearly of an inch in height. ‘ Proof ’ in italics 
 at the left lower corner in the margin, just above the plate 
 mark. 
 
 Second State. The initial lotter filled up with horizontal 
 strokes. ‘Proof’ still in tho margin. The sky suffers 
 considerably, the light clouds losing their brilliancy. 
 
 Third State. Tho initial a very small open capital, little 
 more than ,\ r of an inch in height. ‘ Proof ’ still in the 
 margin. In the title ‘ a Picture ’ substituted for ‘ the 
 Picture,’ and the dimensions ‘3 ft. by 4 ft.’ added. 
 
 The original effect nearly destroyed ; the foreground, having 
 worn flat and pale, fails to throw up by contrast the light 
 on the castle, and the water in the foreground loses its 
 transparency. Very inferior. 
 
 The Drawing is in the National Gallerv. 
 
 This, though not perhaps so striking at first sight as 
 some plates of Liber, grows in attractiveness as it is better 
 
 1 Mis-spelt ‘ Duntanhorough ' in all the impressions. 
 
LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 35 
 
 known. Dunstariborough , “wan above the sea,” as Mr. 
 Ruskin lias so expressively called it, is an exquisite effect 
 of early morning. We can feel the rare freshness of the 
 air in the calm, perfectly clear sunrise, after the stormy 
 night. Notice also the fine drawing of the waves, and 
 of the meeting and crossing currents of the receding tide. 
 
 Turner surely had a meaning too when he made the 
 lowly cottage the only secure and sheltering dwelling to 
 be seen. The ambitious but ruined walls and towers of 
 the castle stretch above it, and the grim skeleton of the 
 once richly-freighted but now stranded ship lies below it ; 
 its lighted window alone telling of life and human 
 occupations, while the castle is left to the sheep and the 
 hull to the sea-gulls. 
 
 The engraving of the sky and the upper part of the 
 plate in aquatint was done without Turner’s sanction. 
 Mr. J. E. Taylor possesses a touched proof, on the margin 
 of which Turner has written — - 
 
 “ Sir, you have done in aquatint all the castle down to the rocks ; 
 did I ever ask for such an indulgence 1 ” 
 
 Doubtless, by this time, he had discovered the superiority 
 of mezzotint to aquatint. 
 
 The view of Dunstanborough in the ‘England and 
 Wales ’ 1 is taken from a point rather more to the left. 
 
 1 No. 8. 
 
 D 
 
 9 
 
3G 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 No. 15. LAKE OF THUN, SWISS, [m] 
 
 London , published June 10, 1808, by C. Turner , 50 ) 
 Warren Street, Fitzroy Square. Drawn and Etched by 
 J. M. W. Turner Esq. It. A. P.P. Engraved by Chas. 
 Turner. 
 
 In the centre, the lake agitated by a storm ; a boat on the lake, and 
 many figures with carts and bales on shore, on the right. The moun- 
 tains slope down to the lake on either side and enclose it. Lightniii" 
 breaks from a dark cloud above in the centre. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. The initial letter (M) and the title in 
 open capitals. The initial -J of an inch from the top of the 
 plate. ‘Proof’ in italics, very faint, at the left lower 
 corner in the margin, just above the plate mark, and also 
 just above the initial letter. A comma in the title, after 
 ‘ Thun.’ Rare. 
 
 Second State. The initial and the title filled up with hori- 
 zontal strokes. A comma after ‘ Thun.’ ‘ Proof ’ 
 erased. Much inferior to the First State, the shadows 
 throughout having lost their depth, the mountain masses 
 their gradation, and tho lightning its brilliancy. 
 
 Third State. The initial and the title in open capitals, but 
 the former broader than in the First State, and -A- of an 
 inch from the top of the plate. The comma after ‘ Thun ’ 
 erased. ‘ Proof ’ absent. 
 
 Dull and worn throughout. 
 
 The sepia Drawing is in the National Gallery. The 
 original Drawing in colours from which it was taken, is at 
 Farnley. 
 
 The Etching of this plate is fine ; the mountain slopes 
 and contours are particularly well brought out, and the 
 
LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 37 
 
 lines of the whole composition are very pleasant. The 
 finished plate hides this a good deal, but very early 
 impressions are attractive from the brilliant rendering 
 of the thunderstorm. This was however soon lost as 
 printing proceeded, and many impressions even of the 
 First State, and all the later ones, seem to me tame and 
 uninteresting. 
 
 Mr. Ruskin, referring to another Drawing by Turner of 
 the Lake of Thun, in his own possession, remarks on 
 the hold which first impressions of a scene made on the 
 painter. He says (Notes on his Turner Drawings, 1878, 
 p. 17) 
 
 “ But he rarely painted on the spot : he looked, gathered, con- 
 sidered ; then painted the sum of what he had gained, up to the point 
 necessary for due note of it, and much more of the impression, since 
 that would pass, than of the scene, which would remain. 
 
 The Niesen and Stockhorn might be completely drawn at any 
 time ; but his vision of them amidst their thunder-clouds, and his im- 
 pression of the stormy lake, with the busy people on its shore, careless 
 of storm or calm, was to be kept. And kept it was, to his latest 
 day, realized first completely in the “ Lake of Thun ” of the Liber 
 Studiorum.” 
 
38 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 No. 16. 
 
 THE FIFTH PLAGUE OF EGYPT. [h] 
 
 The picture late in the -possession of 
 W. Bedford , Esq. 
 
 London , published June 10, 1808. Drawn and Etched 
 by J. J\l. W. Turner Esq. E.A. P.P. Engraved by C. 
 Turner. 
 
 In the distance, the Pyramids, over which lightning is breaking at 
 many points from dark clouds right across the sky ; tires running 
 along the ground below. Jn the left foreground, a pool, beside which 
 is a dead horse and rider ; on the right, two figures. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published Plate. The initial letter (It) an open capital 
 about [ of an inch from the top of the plate. ‘ Proof ’ in 
 italics, extremely faint, at the left lower corner in the 
 margin, just abovo the plate mark. 
 
 Second State. The initial tilled with horizontal strokes. 
 ‘ Proof ’ erased. The down-strokes of the capital letters 
 in the title thickened. The sky usually much inferior in 
 brilliancy to the First State, but fine impressions may 
 occasionally be met with. 
 
 Third State. The initial open, but To an inch from the 
 top of the plate. The measurement, ‘ 6 by 5,’ added after 
 the title. 
 
 Worn, and the sky without brilliancy. 
 
 The Drawing is in the National Gallery, as is also the 
 Picture from which it was taken. 
 
 Another plate depending entirely for its interest on the 
 tine rendering of lightning and thundercloud, to be fully 
 seen only in the earliest impressions. 
 
LIBER STUDIOR TJM. 
 
 .39 
 
 Speaking of Turner’s subjects drawn from other countries 
 and other times than his own, Mr. Euskin says ( M . '. P. 
 i. p. 127) of this and its companion, The Tenth Plague 
 (No. 61) 
 
 “ . . . When local character of this classical kind is attempted, the 
 painter is visibly cramped ; awkward resemblances to Claude testify 
 the want of his usual powerful originality ; in the Tenth Plague of 
 Egypt he makes us think of Belzoni rather than of Moses ; the Fifth 
 is a total failure ; the Pyramids look like brick-kilns, and the fire 
 running along the ground like burning manure.” 
 
 The Plague of Hail and Eire represented here was the 
 Seventh, not the Fifth. See Exodus ix. 22-26. 
 
 On an engraver’s proof in the possession of Mr. J. E. 
 Taylor, Turner has written “ Make the lightning quite 
 white— this is the best yet by far.” 
 
 At a later period (1836), though he had never visited 
 Egypt, Turner contributed a grand and most poetical 
 rendering of the Pyramids (Plate 95) to Finden’s Landscape 
 Illustrations of the Bible. 
 
40 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 PART IV. 
 
 ISSUED MARCH 29, 1809. 
 
 No. 17. 
 
 THE FARM-YARD WITH THE COCK, fp] 
 
 London , published March 29, 1809, by C. Turner , 50, 
 Warren Street , Fitzroy Square. Drawn and Etched by 
 J. M. W. Turner Esq. 11. A. P.P. Engraved by Chas. 
 Turner. 
 
 In front of a dung-heap in the foreground pigs are lying and 
 poultry feeding ; beyond, a cart and palings, with trees above 
 them. Two labourers leaning against the palings. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. Has fewer lights in the straw than in 
 subsequent States ; beyond this 1 can see no difference in 
 tho plato, though of courso its wear is apparent in the 
 general loss of brightness in tho lights, and depth in the 
 shadows, as printing went on. 
 
 The Drawing is in the National Gallery. 
 
 This very uninteresting and ill-drawn plate is said to 
 have been done by Turner in reply to a challenge from his 
 friend and patron Mr. Stokes, who had declared that not 
 even he (Turner) could make a picture out of straight 
 lines. It will be seen however that he has failed to 
 observe the conditions in question. 
 
 It may be noticed that this, and about six other common- 
 place subjects (Nos. 7, 12, 22, 29, 32, 47), were nearly all 
 issued in the earlier part of the work. The later parts of 
 
LIBER STUDIO RUM. 
 
 41 
 
 Liber are happily entirely free from them. Farm-yards, 
 pigs, and boys’ sports were things for which probably 
 Turner cared little, and could well afford to have left to 
 men like Morland or Webster, who painted them con amove 
 and therefore well, while by Turner they are always 
 uncouthly or ludicrously done . 1 
 
 The following instructions in the painter’s handwriting 
 on a proof of this plate belonging to Mr. J. E. Taylor, are 
 amusing : “ Very much improved ; the cock is yet bad 
 and the head of the pigs — narrow the head, make it 
 blacker and throw light upon the cock’s head; take the 
 eye out if you can, it is too large.” 
 
 1 Mr. Ruskin, in the recently published Catalogue of his own Turner 
 Drawings, says of one (‘Sunshine on the Tamar’) “. . . . it shows already 
 one of Turner’s specially English (in the humiliating sense) points of 
 character — that, like Bewick, he could draw pigs better than any other 
 animal.” 
 
42 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 No. 18 . 
 
 Drawing of the CLYDE. In the possession 
 
 of J. M. W. Turner, s f [e. p.1 
 
 — • > 
 
 London , published March 29, 1809, by C. Turner , 50, 
 Warren Street , Fitzroy Square. Drawn and Etched by 
 J. M. W. Turner Esq. II. A. P.P. Engraved by dices. 
 Turner. 
 
 In the centre, a cascade, upon which the sun’s rays are falling. On 
 the right and above the cascade, rocks and trees. On the left, a per- 
 pendicular rock with trees at the top ; below, women bathing. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. The initial letters (E. P.) and the word 
 ‘ Clyde ’ in the title in open capitals ; the strokes of equal 
 thickness. The foliage at the left corner, just above the 
 women, has distinct lights falling on it. 
 
 Second State. The initials and the word ‘ Clyde ’ in open 
 letters, but with the left strokes thicker than the right. 
 A good deal re-touched. No lights on the foliage at the 
 left corner. The rays of light over the fall still visible, 
 but much fainter than in the First State, and their trans- 
 parent effect lost. 
 
 Very inferior to the First State. 
 
 Third State. The initials and the title as in the Second 
 State. Lights again appear on the foliage to the left, just 
 above the women. The rays of light over the fall are 
 barely perceptible. 
 
 The sepia Drawing is in the National Gallery. 
 
 The beauty of this plate can only be seen in very early 
 impressions. The rays of light are there marvellously 
 
LIBER STUDIO RUM. 
 
 43 
 
 transparent, and tire banks distinctly visible through them. 
 This fine effect was very soon impaired in printing, the 
 rays becoming flat and losing their transparency. 
 
 Good impressions of the Print are much finer than the 
 sepia Drawing, which has none of the play of light just 
 alluded to. I have never seen the original Drawing in 
 colours, but no doubt, as in Norham Castle (No. 57), in the 
 later “ Chain Bridge over the Tees,” 1 as well as in other of 
 his engraved works, rays of light such as we have here, 
 and similar atmospheric effects, were after-thoughts, added 
 by Turner’s directions whilst they were being engraved. 
 
 1 England and Wales , No. 24. 
 
44 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 No. 19 . LITTLE DEVIL'S BRIDGE over the 
 RUSS above ALTDORFT, SWISS®. [> .] 
 
 London , 'published March 29, 1809, by C. Turner, 50, 
 Warren Street, Fitzroy Square. Drawn and Etched by 
 J. M. W. Turner Esq. TLA. P.P. Engraved by Chas. 
 Turner. 
 
 Across a chasm in the centre of the plate, a bridge of a single arch, 
 through which is seen a torrent below. Above and beyond the bridge, 
 mountains shrouded in mist. In the foreground, on the right, the 
 stump of a tree with a skeleton of a mule below it. Pines on the 
 left. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. The initial letter (M 3 ) and the title 
 open capitals ; the strokes of equal thickness. Hare. 
 
 Second State. The initials and the title in open letters ; the 
 right stroke distinctly thicker than the left. Fine im- 
 pressions of this Stato can scarcely be distinguished from 
 the First State, except by the marks just named. 
 
 Third State. The letters as in the Second State. The sky 
 re-worked and darkened. The drifting mists above and 
 below the bridge scarcely visible ; the whole plate worn 
 and all luminous reflection gone from the bridge. 
 
 The Drawing is in the National Gallery. 
 
 This plate, both as Etching and Engraving, ranks among 
 the finest of the Liber. The Etching is very striking. 
 Mr. Hamerton writes of it {Etching and Etchers , First 
 Edition, p. 90) : — 
 
 u The heavy etching of the rock and pines to the left, and of the 
 riven tree on the isolated central rock, has the artistic advantage of 
 harmonising with the rugged material. W hen the foreground is 
 occupied by things whose nature is opposed to human effeminacy, and 
 
LIBER STUD I DRUM. 
 
 45 
 
 affords enjoyment to none but our hardiest instincts, the iron pencil 
 may be blunt and strong, and the hand of the artist resolute ; but we 
 might not safely infer from the success of such work as this that it 
 
 would be well to apply a like method to all foregrounds 
 
 If any student, however, would copy this plate in pure etching, de- 
 clining all help from mezzotint, or sulphur, or aquatint, or even dry- 
 point, he would ascertain for himself in what some of the difficulties 
 of etching consist.” 
 
 Mr. Buskin (if. P. vol. i. p. 125), treating of the different 
 hold which subjects taken from foreign countries have 
 upon all painters, as compared with subjects from their 
 own country, regards this, with the St. Gothard and the 
 Grand Chartreuse, as among the marked instances in 
 which, after his first visit to Switzerland, Turner showed 
 “both his entire appreciation and command of foreign 
 subjects.” 
 
 At the Liber Exhibition of the Burlington Line Arts 
 Club in 1872, two touched proofs were shown, each 
 bearing on its margin instructions to the engraver in 
 Turner’s handwriting, of great interest, as manifesting the 
 minute care and exact intention given by him to the 
 smallest details of each plate. On the earlier (lent by 
 Mr. Henry Yaughan) we read: — 
 
 “ The light must be sharp and brilliant, particularly upon the front 
 trees, bones, rock, &c. ; and if my etching is in your way, viz. the 
 bird and top of the tree, scrape out or beat up the copper. Be 
 careful about the distance. It wants air and light scraping to render 
 it like the place.” 
 
 And on the later (lent by Mr. C. S. Bale) : — 
 
 “ This sky is much better, but do not understand the spots amongst 
 the light part. A slight indication of a ray of bursting light under 
 the bridge would improve that part, and a few sharp white touches 
 upon the leaves marked X , because they are now two black spots with- 
 out connection with the stems of the trees. Put a shade upon the top 
 of the bridge, and under at the top of the arch.” 
 
 The bridge represented here has been for many years 
 unused. A new one has been substituted higher up. 
 
48 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 No. 20. 
 
 Original Sketch of a Picture for W. Leader Esq. 
 
 M 
 
 (Generally known as ‘ The Leader Sea-Piece/ and also called 
 ‘ The Guard-Ship at the Nore.’) 
 
 London , published March 29 , 1809 , by C. Turner , 50 , 
 Warren Street, Fitzroy Square. Drawn and Etched by 
 J. M. W. Turner Esq. E.A. P.P. Engraved by Clias. 
 Turner. 
 
 A sea in a slight breeze. On the right, a man-of-war at anchor, 
 with one sail set and ensign flying. A boat on the left running before 
 the wind, and other sails on the horizon. Light breaks through clouds 
 on the left. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. The initial letter (M) an open capital ; 
 the strokes of equal thickness. 
 
 Second State. The initial letter an open capital ; the right 
 strokes much heavier than the left. The title, though still 
 in italics, has the down-strokes distinctly thicker than in 
 the hirst State. The light clouds much less brilliant. The 
 sea also loses much of the sparkling effect produced by the 
 sharp contrast of the deepest darks with the brightest 
 lights. Early impressions are, however, often fairly good. 
 
 Third State. The letters as in the Second State. Worn 
 throughout. The strong darks in the sea defining the 
 waves are nearly lost. The sky much darker and duller. 
 
 The Drawing is in the National Gallery. Another sepia 
 sketch, somewhat resembling it, is in the collection of Mr. 
 0. S. Bale. 
 
LIBER STUDIO RUM. 
 
 47 
 
 I have beard on good authority that this fine subject is 
 taken, almost without alteration, from a picture by W. 
 Vandevelde, but I have not yet been able to identify it by 
 anv engraving after that master. 
 
 The Drawing shows that the distant man-of-war on the 
 left and the boats in the offing were after-thoughts. Mr. 
 Henry Vaughan possesses an engraver’s proof taken 
 before they were added. 
 
 The wave-drawing, as -well as the sky, is most masterly, 
 and far beyond anything Vandevelde w T as capable of. 
 
48 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 No. 21. MORPETH, NORTH 0 , [a] 
 
 London , published March 29, 1809, by C. Turner , 50, 
 Warren Street , Fitzroy Square. Drawn and Etched by 
 J. M. W. Turner Esq. R.A. F.P. Engraved by Chas. 
 Turner. 
 
 A road through a town, over a bridge ; in the foreground, a woman 
 leading a horse towards the spectator. On the right, houses against 
 which ladders are placed, and booths below. On the left, an inn with 
 a sign hanging out. Beyond, a low, square, ruined tower on a hill. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. The initial letter (A) and the title in 
 open capitals ; the strokes of equal thickness. 
 
 Second State. The initial lotter and the title open capitals ; 
 the right-hand strokes heavier than the left. The sky 
 much less brilliant, and the shadows throughout lose their 
 depth. The figures on the lower ground on the right, below 
 the man on the bridge, taken out light. 
 
 Third State. The letters as in the Second State. The sky 
 re-worked, and much darker and duller. 
 
 The Drawing is in the National Gallery. 
 
 An engraver’s proof of this plate in the possession of 
 Mr. J. E. Taylor, again shows Turner’s minute care, in 
 the following instructions in his handwriting in the 
 margin : — 
 
 O 
 
 “ I think the whole sky would be better a tone lighter, besides the 
 light clouds, which will make the hill more solid. The whitewashed 
 house cannot be too white, or the linen upon the stall. The etched 
 line at the corner of the house, and some brighter bits upon tiling of 
 the houses.” 
 
LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 49 
 
 Though somewhat prosaic in subject, in composition 
 this plate is fine, and very characteristic of Turner. It 
 will be noticed how the square light mass of the house 
 on the right, is repeated and balanced by the square dark 
 tower beyond, doubtless widened for the purpose. The 
 dark sign hanging out on the left is balanced by a light 
 sign beyond the bridge. The ladders and scaffolding are 
 evidently placed to break the otherwise monotonous 
 space of blank wall, and greatly help the composition. 
 The distribution of light and shade is extremely effective. 
 Observe how the light, which is focussed in the smoke 
 relieved against the dark sky on the right, is spread 
 downwards over the plate. 
 
 The Etching is very forcibly drawn, and the perspective 
 admirable. Mr. Kuskin (Elements of Drawing, p. 134,) 
 recommends it as very desirable for study. 
 
50 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 PART V. 
 
 ISSUED JANUARY 1, 1811. 
 
 No. 22. JUVENILE TRICKS, [p] 
 
 Published January 1, 1811, by Mr. Turner, Queen Ann 
 Street West. Prawn and Etched by J. M. W. Turner R.A. 
 Engraved by W. Say , Engraver to H.R.U. the Duke of 
 Gloucester. 
 
 Boys playing round a trough in the foreground of a park. Iu the 
 distance, a row of houses seen through trees. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. Before the mark in the margin. 
 
 Second State. A mark resembling a capital II at the left 
 lower corner in the margin, just above the plate mark. No 
 dot in the bow of the initial letter P. 
 
 Third State. The same mark in the margin as in the Second 
 State. A dot in the bow of the P. The houses on 
 the horizon taken out a bright white, and strongly 
 relieved against the sky. More lights on the foliage. 
 
 The Drawing is in the National Gallery. 
 
 We could well spare the comic element in Liber. In 
 the happily few cases in which Turner attempted, as 
 here, to introduce it, his awkward handling is itself 
 ludicrous. They have however generally some redeeming 
 feature in the landscape, and Mr. Ruskin (M. P. vol. i. page 
 388) has pointed out that the tree-trunks in this plate 
 show Turner’s success in giving their true woody character. 
 Equal praise cannot, I think, be bestowed on the foliage. 
 The scene appears to be in Hyde Park. 
 
LIBER STUDIO R UM. 
 
 51 
 
 No. 23. THE HINDOO WORSHIPPER [e.p.] 
 
 (Also known as * Hindoo Devotions.’) 
 
 Published January 1, 1811, by Mr. Turner, Queen Ann 
 Street West. Drawn and Etched by J. M. W. Turner 
 P.A. P.P. Engraved by P. Dunkarton. 
 
 On the right, still water, with trees and walls above. In the centre, 
 many tall trees, below one of which, a stone-pine, a figure is kneeling 
 before an image or picture. In the middle distance, a temple ; hills 
 and water beyond. Two large sculptured blocks of stone in the fore- 
 ground. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. Very few horizontal bars of light 
 cloud in the upper sky. A certain mottled effect notice- 
 able throughout the sky, arising from the rottenness of the 
 copper. No mark in the margin. 
 
 Second State. The sky entirely altered ; the upper part 
 covered with long diagonal lines of light clouds stretching 
 across from left to right. No mark in the margin. 
 
 Brilliant and rare ; perhaps the finest State of the plate. 
 
 Third State. The sky as in the Second State. An irregular 
 mark somewhat resembling a capital H at each lower angle 
 in the margin. Before the dot in the bow of the P of the 
 initial letters. 
 
 Often very fine. 
 
 Fourth State. The same marks in the margin as in the Third 
 State. A dot in the bow of the P of the initial letters. 
 A good deal re-worked. The walls on the right bank above 
 the water distinctly outlined light throughout. 
 
 Still sometimes fair. 
 
 E 
 
 9 
 
 The Drawing is in the National Gallery. 
 
52 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 This plate, one of the most beautiful of the Liber, is of 
 great interest as showing Turner’s complete understanding 
 and mastery of the art of engraving. 
 
 The difference here between the First and Second States 
 is not one of trifling marks or re-touches, but it is the 
 difference between late evening and early morning — 
 between sunset and sunrise — and we hardly know which 
 to admire most. The First State, following the Drawing, 
 is solemn and impressive ; the Second, radiant with the 
 brightness of dawn. 
 
 The cause of the alteration I take to be the same as in 
 St. Gothard (No. 9). In the First State, the sky will be 
 noticed to have a mottled, unnatural appearance, arising 
 no doubt from the copper having again failed, and necessi- 
 tating some alteration, or the plate, with all the work upon 
 it, would soon have had to be sacrificed. This was not 
 the thing for Turner to submit to. Accordingly, with 
 consummate skill, he transforms the whole effect, turns 
 night into day with a few touches of the scraper, and 
 saves his plate. 1 
 
 The grand drawing of the stone-pine, conspicuous botli in 
 the Etching and the Engraving, cannot fail to be noticed : 
 also the admirable way in which the light is focussed in 
 one brightest (but still subdued) spot in the sky. Block 
 out this spot, and the whole sky at once becomes dull. 
 And are we not intended to contrast the simplicity of the 
 wayside worship and the half-clad worshipper, with the 
 departed glories of a more elaborate faith and a higher 
 civilisation, suggested by the ruined temple, and the fallen, 
 richly-carved capital ? 
 
 1 I imagine about fifteen or perhaps twenty impressions of the First 
 State had been taken, before the alteration was made. 
 
LIBER STUDIOS UM. 
 
 53 
 
 No. 24. COAST OF YORKSHIRE, near Whitby. 
 
 [M] 
 
 Published January 1 , 1811 , by Mr. Turner , Queen Ann 
 Street West . Drawn and Etched by J. M. W. Turner P.A. 
 Engraved by W. Say , Engraver to H.B.H. the Duke of 
 Gloucester. 
 
 On the left, high cliffs above the sea ; on the farthest cliff a white 
 lighthouse ; below, on the right, a ship wrecked on a ridge of rocks 
 with breakers all round. Many figures on the rocks, and others 
 standing in the sea in the left foreground, apparently rescuing the 
 crew. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. The initial letter (M) an open capital ; 
 all the strokes of equal thickness. Before the mark in the 
 margin. 
 
 Second State. A cross in the left lower corner of the margin, 
 just above the plate mark. The last stroke of the initial 
 letter M distinctly thickened. 
 
 Much of the fine effect of the spray driving up the cliffs lost. 
 
 Third State. The mark in the margin altered to an irregular 
 capital H. Both the heavier members of the initial letter 
 M have the right-hand stroke distinctly thicker than the 
 left. 
 
 The lighter parts much worn throughout, and the darker re- 
 worked and very heavy. 
 
 Fourth State. The same mark in the margin as in the Third 
 State ; a dot added in the middle of the ‘ 0 ’ of ‘ Yorkshire * 
 in the title. 
 
 The Drawing is in the National Gallery. 
 
54 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 Though, the Etching of this plate is weak, and probably 
 partly the work of the engraver, it nevertheless shows 
 Turner’s evident grasp of the soft, shaly nature of the 
 rocks on this part of the coast. I have been greatly 
 interested lately in seeing the same characters indicated in 
 some fine recent drawings by Mr. Alfred Hunt of the same 
 spot, or one closely adjacent. 
 
 It is worth while to compare the Etching of soft rocks 
 here with Turner’s hard rocks in the Etching of St. 
 Gothard (No. 9), and his water- worn boulders in Blair 
 Athol (No. 30), and Ben Arthur (No. 69). 
 
 In the Drawing, and in very early impressions of 
 the Print, the sea is very fine, especially the effect of the 
 spray driving up the cliffs. This was, however, too deli- 
 cate a piece of engraver’s work to stand much printing, 
 and it is rarely to be seen in its first beauty, except in 
 engravers’ proofs. The later States are very black and 
 heavy. 
 
LIBER STU BIORUM. 
 
 55 
 
 No. 25. HIND HEAD HILL. On the Ports- 
 mouth Road . [m] 
 
 Published January 1, 1811, by Mr . Turner , Queen Ann 
 Street West. Drawn and Etched by J. M. W. Turner Pi. A. 
 P.P. Engraved by D unkart on. 
 
 In the middle distance, a hill in shadow ; at the furthest summit a 
 gallows, and at the base a fire from which smoke is rising. Sheep 
 lying in the foreground, and the shepherd among them on the right. 
 Light breaking from behind dark clouds above the gallows. A coach 
 coming round the shoulder of the hill on the right. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. The initial letter (M) an open capital. 
 Before the mark in the margin. 
 
 Second State. The initial letter as in the First State. A 
 mark resembling a cross or a figure 4 in the left lower 
 corner of the margin, just above the plate mark. 
 
 Third State. The left thicker member of the initial letter M 
 contains a line. The mark in the margin altered to an 
 irregular capital IT. 
 
 More light clouds in the sky ; especially one long horizontal 
 streak introduced above the round cloudlets over the 
 furthest point of the hill, and stretching to within an inch 
 of the left margin of the plate. 
 
 In fine impressions this is perhaps as beautiful as any State 
 of the plate. 
 
 Fourth State. The initial letter and the mark in the margin 
 as in the Third State. A dot added in the middle of the 
 D of the title. 
 
 Worn throughout, and much inferior to the preceding State. 
 The light from the fire has a broader effect, and the slope 
 of hill just over it on the left is outlined lighter, its original 
 effect of gradation having been lost through wear. 
 
56 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 Fifth Elate. A stroke in both the thick members of the 
 initial letter M. The mark in the margin and the dot in 
 the D as in the preceding State. 
 
 Utterly worn and inferior. 
 
 The Drawing is in the National Gallery. 
 
 Hind Head Hill is a fine Etching and a fine Engraving. 
 The sky is one of the subtlest and most masterly of the 
 grand series of skies of the Liber. Whose hand but 
 Turner’s could have caught the intricate play of those rays 
 of afternoon sunlight, breaking from behind the clouds just 
 coming up across the sun ? The sheep scattered and feed- 
 ing, and their shepherd, occupied apparently with his book, 
 evidently do not even fear a summer shower, and suggest 
 only the quiet and warmth of a June afternoon. The 
 flock, the burning weeds, and the passing coach speak only 
 of the peaceful occupations of daily life, and contrast with 
 the grim figures hanging from the gibbet on the distant 
 hill-top . 1 Turner must, I think, in the Etching in- 
 tentionally have modified the effect in the Drawing, where 
 these two figures are swinging vigorously with the wind. 
 In the latter also, it will be noticed that a more natura 
 and not less telling effect is given to the fire which focusses 
 the light at the important central point in the valley. 
 The brightness of the fame in the Print appears to me 
 exaggerated, and impossible for daylight. 
 
 Air. Luskin in his Elements of Drawing has recom- 
 mended the Etching as one of those very desirable for 
 study. 
 
 1 Visitors to Hind Head Hill, which commands one of the finest views 
 in the Southern Counties, will find now, in place of the gibbet, a stone 
 memorial cross bearing the inscription ‘ host Tenebras Lux.’ 
 
LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 57 
 
 No. 26 . LONDON FEOM GKEENWICH. [a] 
 
 Picture in the 'possession of Walter Fawkes 
 Esq. of Farnley. 3 ft. by 4 ft. 
 
 Published January 1, 1811, by Mr. Turner , Queen Ann 
 Street West. Prawn and Etched by J. M. W. Turner II. A. 
 P.P. Engraved by C. Turner. 
 
 In the foreground, the slopes of the park with trees and deer ; below 
 them, the buildings, cupolas, &c., of Greenwich Hospital. Beyond, 
 the Thames, with shipping ; on the horizon, the spires and towers of 
 London. The Observatory on the left. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. Before the mark in the margin. 
 
 Second State . A mark resembling a capital H in the left 
 lower corner of the margin, just above the plate mark. 
 Before the dot in the first ‘O’ of 4 London ’ in the title. 
 The sky much less brilliant than the First State, and the fine 
 distant effect on the horizon greatly impaired. 
 
 Third State. The same mark in the margin as in the Second 
 State. A dot added in the middle of the first 4 0 ’ of 
 4 London ’ in the title. 
 
 Flat and inferior throughout, 
 
 The Drawing is in the National Gallery. A nother, differing 
 considerably, is in the possession of Mr. J. E. Taylor. The 
 Picture is also in the National Gallery. 
 
 I have already alluded to this distant view of London, 
 delightful alike in Mr. Fawkes’s brown Picture (now in the 
 National Gallery), and in the Print, which is taken, with 
 little alteration, from it. In both we are attracted by the 
 pleasant knolls and grassy slopes of the park in front, by 
 
58 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 the gleaming reaches of river beyond with white sails clotted 
 all about, and by the fine rendering of the great city on 
 the horizon, its very smoke made to enhance its beauty. 
 Turner has shown us the poetry of distant London here, 
 just as Meryon has given us the poetry of distant Paris 
 in his “ Stryge” and “L’Abside.” 
 
 It will be noticed how, in the composition, Turner has 
 adopted his favourite plan of repeating his prominent 
 foreground forms ; the dome of St. Paul’s, small from its 
 distance, repeats and balances the two cupolas of the 
 Hospital. In the Picture we do not see the Observatory 
 on the left, but as it comes into the Print, its lines are 
 carried on to the horizon by the pile of Westminster 
 Abbey, added with great effect for that purpose. 
 
 The perspective of the Hospital buildings appears to me 
 decidedly faulty. 
 
LIBER ST U DIOR XJM. 
 
 59 
 
 PART VI. 
 
 ISSUED JUNE 1, 1811. 
 
 No. 27. WINDMILL AND LOCK. 
 
 FROM A PICTURE IN THE POSSESSION OF J. M. W 
 
 TURNER R.A. [p] 
 
 Published June 1 , 1811 , by J. M. IF. Turner , Queen 
 Ann Street West . Drawn and Etched by J. M. W. Turner. 
 Engraved by IF. Say, Engraver to II Pi. II . the Duke of 
 Gloucester. 
 
 In the centre, on a bank inclining to the left, a windmill seen in 
 profile. Relow it, in front, the lock of a canal, the gates of which 
 men are closing ; a barge inside has a light in the stern. On the 
 right of the lock, a white horse. The sun declining, with light clouds. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. Before the mark in the margin. Bare. 
 
 Second State. A mark resembling a capital H about half an 
 inch below the right lower angle of the plate, but so faint 
 as to be barely perceptible. 
 
 Good impressions are little inferior to the First State. 
 
 Third State. The same mark in the margin as in the Third 
 State. A dot added in the first ‘O’ of ‘ Possession ’ in 
 the title. 
 
 Often fairly good. 
 
 I have been able to obtain no information of any Drawing 
 for this plate. It was probably etched by Turner direct from 
 the Picture, which is now in the possession of Mr. Francis 
 Cook. An Etching carefully coloured in sepia, which was 
 sold with Mr, Hough’s collection of Liber at Christie’s, in 
 April, 1878, was doubtless the guide for the engraver, and 
 bore his monogram. 
 
60 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 A fine effect of a calm bright sky, just before sunset, ancl 
 also of grandly worked- out chiaroscuro. One may easily 
 err in attributing to Turner in Liber, rivalry with other 
 masters ; but the subject here, as well as the treatment, 
 certainly strongly recall Rembrandt. 
 
 Mr. Kuskin has written very characteristically of this 
 subject. Comparing Turner’s sense of the picturesque 
 with that of other painters, and especially Stanfield’s, he 
 says (M. P. vol. iv. p. 7) : — 
 
 “I take, therefore, a windmill, forming the principal subject in his 
 (Stanfield’s) drawing of ‘Brittany near Dol’ (engraved in the Coast 
 Scenery), and beside it I place a windmill, which forms also the prin- 
 cipal subject in Turner’s study of the Lock, in the Liber Studiorum. 
 At first sight, I daresay, the reader may like Stanfield’s best ; and there 
 is indeed a great deal more in it to attract liking. Its roof is nearly 
 as interesting as a piece of stony peak on a mountain, with a chalet 
 built on its side ; and it is exquisitely varied in swell and curve. 
 Turner’s roof, on the contrary, is a plain, ugly gable — a windmill 
 roof and nothin^ more. Stanfield’s sails are twisted into most effcc. 
 
 o 
 
 tive wrecks, as beautiful as pine-bridges over Alpine streams ; only they 
 do not look as if they had ever been serviceable windmill sails ; they 
 are bent about in cross and awkward wnys, as if they were warped 
 or cramped, and their timbers look heavier than necessary. Turners 
 sails have no beauty about them, like that of Alpine bridges ; but they 
 have the exact switchy-sway of the sail that is always straining against 
 the wind ; and the timbers form clearly the lightest possible frame- 
 work for the canvas, thus showing the essence of windmill sail. Then 
 the clay wall of Stanfield’s mill is as beautiful as a piece of chalk cliff, 
 all worn into furrows by the rain, coated with mosses, and rooted to the 
 ground by a heap of crumbled stone, embroidered with grass and 
 creeping plants. But this is not a serviceable state for a windmill to 
 be in. The essence of a windmill, as distinguished from all other 
 mills, is, that it should turn round, and be a spinning thing, ready 
 always to face the wind ; as light, therefore, as possible, and as vibra- 
 tory ; so that it is in nowise good for it to approximate itself to the 
 nature of chalk cliffs. 
 
 “Now observe how completely Turner has chosen his mill so as to 
 mark this great, fact of windmill nature ; how high he has set it ; how 
 slenderly he has supported it ; how he has built it all of wood ; how 
 he has bent the lower planks so as to give the idea of the building 
 
LIBER 8 TUDIORUM. 
 
 61 
 
 lapping over the pivot on which it rests inside ; and how, finally, he 
 has insisted on the great leverage of the beam behind it, while Stan- 
 field’s lever looks more like a prop than a thing to turn the roof with. 
 And he has done all this fearlessly, though none of these elements 
 of form are pleasant ones in themselves, but tend, on the whole, to 
 give a somewhat mean and spider-like look to the principal feature in 
 his picture, and then, finally, because he could not get the windmill 
 dissected, and show us the real heart and centre of the whole, behold, 
 he has put a pair of old millstones, lying outside , at the bottom of 
 it. These — the first cause and motive of all the fabric — laid at its 
 foundation ; and, beside them, the cart which is to fulfil the end of 
 the fabric’s being, and take home the sacks of flour. So far of what 
 each painter chooses to draw. But do not fail also to consider the 
 spirit in which it is drawn. Observe, that though all this ruin has 
 befallen Stanfield’s mill, Stanfield is not in the least sorry for it. On 
 the contrary, he is delighted, and evidently thinks it the most fortu- 
 nate thing possible. The owner is ruined, doubtless, or dead, but his 
 mill forms an admirable object in our view of Brittany . . . Not 
 
 so, Turner. His mill is still serviceable ; but, for all that, he feels 
 somewhat pensive about it. It is a poor property, and evidently the 
 owner of it has enough to do to get his own bread out from between its 
 stones. Moreover, there is a dim type of all melancholy human labour 
 in it — catching the free winds, and setting them to turn grindstones. 
 It is poor work for the winds, and better, indeed, than drowning sailors 
 or tearing down forests, but not their proper work of marshalling 
 the clouds, and bearing the wholesome rains to the place where they 
 are ordered to fall, and fanning the flowers and leaves when they 
 are faint with heat. Turning round a couple of stones, for the mere 
 pulverisation of human food, is not noble work for the winds. So, 
 also, of all low labour to which one sets human souls. It is better 
 than no labour ; and, in a still higher degree, better than destructive 
 wandering of imagination ; but yet, that grinding in the darkness, 
 for mere food’s sake, must be melancholy work enough for many a 
 living creature. All men have felt it so ; and this grinding at the 
 mill, whether it be breeze or soul that is set to it, we cannot much 
 rejoice in. Turner has no joy of his mill. It shall be dark against 
 the sky, yet proud, and on the hill-top ; not ashamed of its labour, 
 and brightened from beyond, the golden clouds stooping over it, and 
 the calm summer sun, going down behind, far away, to his rest.” 
 
 The mill represented here is said to have been taken 
 from one which formerly existed at Hanwell, not far from 
 the site of the present Lunatic Asylum. 
 
62 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 , No. 28. 
 
 JUNCTION OF SEVERN AND WYE. 
 
 [e. p.] 
 
 Published June, 1811, by J. M. W. Turner, Queen Ann 
 Street West. Drawn, Etched , and Engraved by J. M. W. 
 Turner Esq. R.A. 
 
 A broad river in the distance, with hills beyond. In the middle 
 distance, a smaller river winding between high banks and flowing into 
 the larger one On its right bank the ruins of a castle. The whole 
 seen from the higher foreground, on which, on the left, a boy is sitting. 
 Trees on the right. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. Before the mark in the margin. 
 
 Second State. A mark resembling a very small capital H 
 about a quarter of an inch below the right lower angle of 
 the plate, and barely visible. Before the dot in the bow 
 of the P of the initial letters. 
 
 The light clouds in the upper sky less defined than in the 
 First State. Still very fine, and sometimes little inferior 
 to the First State. 
 
 Third State. The same mark in the margin as in the Second 
 State. A dot added in the bow of the P of the initial 
 letters. 
 
 Impressions of this State are sometimes fairly good. 
 
 The Drawing is in the National Gallery. 
 
 One of the most beautiful of the Liber subjects. Fine 
 impressions have a certain rare bloom on them — if I may 
 use the word. They seem to recall the indescribable 
 
LIBER STUDIO RUM. 
 
 63 
 
 bright freshness one has sometimes seen over a landscape 
 on a June morning, when the increasing warmth of the 
 sun has just — but only just — -cleared off the early mists, 
 and, with a clear sky overhead, everything is sparkling 
 wiih dew. 
 
 This was the first plate that Turner engraved through- 
 out himself. The Etching is very bold and fine, and the 
 effect is heightened on the left bank, by the use of the 
 ‘roulette’ (an engraver’s tool). The lines in the sky are 
 caused by the ‘burnisher’ having been employed to 
 remove accidental marks, called by engravers ‘ foul biting. 
 
 It is difficult to believe that mezzotinting such as we 
 have here was done without training and almost without 
 practice. 
 
64 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 No. 29. MARINE DABBLERS, [m] 
 
 Published June , 1811, by J. M. W. Turner , Queen Ann 
 Street West. Prawn and Etched by J. M. W. Turner Esq. 
 R.A. Engraved by W. Say , Engraver to II.R.H. the Puke 
 of Gloucester. 
 
 Boys on the sea-shore sailing toy-boats. A large boat drawn up on 
 shore just beyond them, on the left. On the right, other fishing-boats 
 being hauled up, the fishermen standing in the water ; sails on the 
 horizon. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. Before the dot in the letter D in the 
 title. 
 
 Second State. A dot in the D in the title. 
 
 The Drawing is in the National Gallery. 
 
 Marine Pabblers is another of the plates which add 
 little to the fame of Liber. Even in the boys’ surround- 
 ings we fail to find anything attractive. Possibly, how- 
 ever, Mr. Buskin sees in the incident of the big boy here, 
 pulling off his clothes to go to rescue the little one’s boat, 
 the imminent wreck of which is causing such grief, one 
 of the instances of the sympathy with children’s sports 
 which he has somewhere claimed for Turner. 
 
LIBER STUD 10 RUM. 
 
 65 
 
 No. 30 . NEAR BLAIR ATHOL SCOTLAND. 
 
 Published June , 1811, by J. M. W. Turner , Queen Ann 
 Street West. Drawn and Etched by J. M. W. Turner 
 Esq. P.A. Engraved by W. Say, Engraver to H.R.H. the 
 Duke of Gloucester. 
 
 A stream flowing from the left between rocky banks, with trees 
 above. In the foreground, a wide pool, with a man fishing. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. Before the mark in the margin. 
 
 Second State. A mark resembling a capital H in the margin, 
 below the word 4 Duke/ just above the plate mark. Before 
 the dot in the 4 0 ’ of 4 Athol ’ in the title. 
 
 Third State. The same mark in the margin as in the Second 
 State. A dot added in the centre of the 4 0 ’ of 4 Scotland ’ 
 and of 4 Athol ’ in the title. 
 
 The lights suffused and dull throughout ; the clearness of the 
 water lost. 
 
 The Drawing is in the National Gallery. 
 
 Very fine both as Etching and Engraving. 
 
 Mr. Ruskin in the following passage (. M.P . vol. i. p. 388) 
 cites this plate with others as an example of Turner’s 
 truth of tree-drawing. He says : — 
 
 44 There is a peculiar stiffness about the curves of wood, which 
 separates them completely from animal curves, and which especially 
 defies recollection or invention ; it is so subtle that it escapes but too 
 
 F 
 
66 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 often, even in the most patient study from nature ; it lies within the 
 thickness of a pencil line. Farther, the modes of ramification of the 
 upper branches are so varied, inventive, and graceful, that the least 
 alteration of them, even the measure of a hairVbreadth, spoils them ; 
 and though it is sometimes possible to get rid of a troublesome bough, 
 accidentally awkward, or in some minor respects to assist the arrange- 
 ment, yet so far as the real branches are copied, the hand libels their 
 lovely curvatures even in its best attempts to follow them. 
 
 “ These two characters, the woody stiffness hinted through muscular 
 line, and the inventive grace of the upper boughs, have never been 
 rendered except by Turner ; he does not merely draw them better than 
 others, but he is the only man w T ho has ever drawn them at all. Of 
 the woody character, the tree subjects of the Liber Studiorum afford 
 marked examples ; the Cephalus and Procris , 1 scenes near the Grand 
 Chartreuse 2 and Blair Athol , 3 Juvenile Tricks , 4 and Hedging and 
 Ditching , 5 may be particularized : in the England series, the Bolton 
 Abbey is perhaps a more characteristic and thoroughly Turneresque 
 example than any.” 
 
 The stream too, winding down the narrow rocky glen, 
 and brawling over the shallows in front, is very lovely. 
 In fine impressions, the limpid clearness of the water is 
 exquisitely rendered by the mezzotint. In the Etching 
 a few strokes give marvellously the whole nature and 
 structure of the rocks. 
 
 1 No. 41. 
 
 2 No. 54. 
 
 * No. 30. 
 
 4 No. 22. 
 
 5 No. 47. 
 
LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 67 
 
 No. 31. LAUFFENBOURGH on the RHINE. 
 
 W 
 
 Published Jan y ■ 1, 1811, by Mr. Turner , Queen Ann 
 Street W est. Drawn and Etched by J. M. W. Turner P.A. 
 P.P. Engraved by T. Hodgetts. 
 
 A town on the high left hank of a rapid river ; the houses and towers 
 with steep roofs. A straight bridge on stone piers crosses the river in 
 the centre. Houses on the right bank. Several figures on the left 
 bank in the foreground. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. Before the mark in the margin. 
 Usually very heavily printed. 
 
 Second State. A mark resembling a capital H in the left 
 lower corner of the margin, just above the plate mark. 
 
 A general loss of brilliancy throughout, especially in the 
 effect of the shadows on the houses and on the piers of the 
 bridge. 
 
 Third State. The same mark in the margin as in the Second 
 State. A dot in the centre of the ‘ 0 ’ of ‘ Lauffenbourgh ’ 
 in the title. A boat with a white sail introduced on the 
 distant reach of the river. The general effect altered by 
 many new lights on the buildings, rocks, and water. 
 
 Early impressions are fairly good, and lose the heaviness of 
 earlier States. 
 
 The Drawing is in the National Gallery. 
 
 Lauffenbourgh is a plate in which the engraver has not, 
 it appears to me, done justice to the Drawing. This is a 
 pleasant picture of a quaint little German town, with its 
 steep-roofed houses and towers seen in afternoon sunlight. 
 
 f 2 
 
68 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 But in the Print the colour of the ink, as well as the 
 heavy engraving, has given a very different and sombre 
 effect, particularly in the foreground, where all the 
 gradation of shadow of the Drawing is lost. 
 
 Mr. Buskin recommends the Etching as a desirable one 
 for the student to copy, and uses the plate to illustrate 
 Turner’s methods of composition as compared with Titian’s. 
 In M. P., vol. v. p. 174, he says : — 
 
 “ If you have Turner’s Liber Studiorum, turn to the Lauffenburg, 
 and compare the figure group there ; a five-fold chain, one standing 
 figure, central ; two recumbent, for wings ; two half recumbent, for 
 bases ; and a cluster of weeds to clasp. Then turn to Lefebre’s 
 ‘ Europa ’ 1 (there are two in the scries — I mean the one with the two 
 tree-trunks over her head). It is a wonderful nine-fold group. 
 Europa central ; two stooping figures, each surrounded by a standing 
 one, for wings ; a cupid on one side, and dog on the other, for bases ; 
 a cupid and trunk of tree, on each side, to terminate above ; and a 
 garland for clasp. 
 
 1 Engraved after Titian. 
 
LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 69 
 
 PART VII. 
 
 ISSUED JUNE 1, 1811. 
 
 No. 32. YOUNG ANGLERS, [p] 
 
 Published June 1 , 1811, by J. M. W. Turner, Queen 
 Ann Street West. Drawn and Etched by J. M. W. Turner. 
 Engraved by R. Dunbarton. 
 
 In the foreground, boys on the bank of a stream, with fishing-rods 
 and pails ; their clothes on the ground on the left. On the opposite 
 bank, below a pollard tree, another boy fishing. On the right, pollard- 
 willow trees, and a bed of reeds. Houses in the distance. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. Before the mark in the margin. 
 
 Second State. A single vertical stroke in the margin, at the 
 right lower corner, under the word ‘ Dunkarton,’ 
 
 Nine impressions are little inferior to the First State. 
 
 Third State. The mark in the margin altered to an irregular 
 capital H, The sky darker and heavier. 
 
 Often very fair. 
 
 The Drawing is in the National Gallery. 
 
 The fine drawing of the pollard-willow trunks here 
 should be noticed. Mr. Euskin has reproduced the 
 Etching of them in facsimile (M. P. vol. v. fig. 61) to 
 illustrate Turner’s accuracy in tree-drawing. Except in the 
 studies of Leonardo da Vinci, it would probably be im- 
 possible to find the same grasp of the essential characters 
 of a tree-trunk, with the same rapidity and freedom of 
 handling. 
 
70 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 No. 33. 
 
 ST. CATHERINE’S HILL NEAR GUILFORD. 
 
 [E.P.] 
 
 Published Jane 1811, by J. M. JV. Turner , Queen Ann 
 Street West. Drawn and Etched by J. M. JV. Turner Esq. 
 11. A. Engraved by J. C. Easting. 
 
 A road in the foreground. On the right, the open gate of a farm- 
 yard, through which a team of horses are passing ; two men standing 
 at the gate. On the left, high trees casting shadows across the road*- 
 down it are coming cows, driven by a woman carrying milkpails. 
 In the distance, a hill on which are the ruins of an abbey ; sheep 
 feeding below it. 
 
 Tice Etching. 
 
 First Pub! ished State. Before the mark in the margin 
 
 o 
 
 > Second i State . A single vertical stroke under the word 
 
 ‘ hasling in the margin, at the right lower angle of the 
 plate. 
 
 Often very line, and little inferior to the First State. 
 
 Hard State, 'file mark in the margin altered to an irregular 
 capital IT. 
 
 Still often fair, but the light clouds in the sky suffer in 
 brilliancy. 
 
 The Drawing is in the National Gallery. 
 
 The hue drawing of the trees on the left here is very 
 noticeable, especially in the Etching, and also the per- 
 spective of the road. The plate has a delightful effect 
 of a bright, showery, summer’s day, and seems to me one 
 ot the most successful of Turner’s less ambitious and more 
 every-day class of subjects. A turnpike road, with a 
 hed ^e on one side, and a farm-yard on the other, are not 
 
LIBER STUDIO RUM. 
 
 71 
 
 very promising materials for a picture, but the play of 
 light and shade over them has given us a pleasant result, 
 and this result I think, too, is in nowise owing to the 
 more romantic feature introduced — the ruined abbey in 
 the distance ; though of course the importance of the latter 
 as a part of the composition is apparent. 
 
 Mr. Wedmore, in his chapter on Liber Studiorum in 
 Studies in English Art , points out as a characteristic 
 instance of Turner’s occasional carelessness in drawing, 
 the gate on the right here, which, if closed, would not 
 cover half the space between the walls intended for it. 
 
 Another view of Guilford, with St. Catherine’s Hill, 
 appears in Turner’s ‘ England and Wales .’ 1 
 
72 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 No. 34. 
 
 MARTELLO TOWERS NEAR BEXHILL, 
 
 SUSSEX, [m] 
 
 Published June 1811, by J. M. W. Turner, Queen Ann 
 Street West. Drawn ancl Etched by J. M. W. Turner Esq. 
 Pi. A. Engraved by W. Say, Engraver to H.R.H. the Duke 
 of Gloucester. 
 
 In the centre, a road by the sea-shore. Chalk cliffs on the right, and 
 a line of martello towers beyond ; the sea on the left. In the fore- 
 ground, a group leading an ass with panniers ; behind them two soldiers 
 on horseback coming up the road. In the distance, a promontory 
 over which a thunderstorm is breaking. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. Before the line of white foam in the 
 middle of the bay. The upper edge of the dark part of the 
 thunder-cloud distinctly defined. 
 
 Second State. A line of white foam stretches across the 
 middle of the bay from the shore to within one-eighth of 
 an inch of the left margin of the plate. The dark part of 
 the thunder-cloud loses its distinct upper edge, and shades 
 gradually into the lighter cloud above it. 
 
 Often fairly good. 
 
 The Drawing is in the National Gallery. 
 
 The sky here will probably be the only thing to attract 
 us. In fine impressions the effect over the promontory, 
 where the storm is breaking heavily, is very striking. 
 
 The same subject was repeated by Turner in his later 
 ‘ Southern Coast.’ 
 
LIBER ST U DIO RUM. 
 
 73 
 
 No. 35. 
 
 INVERARY-PIER. LOCH FYNE. MORNING. 
 
 Published June 1 , 1811 , by J. M. W. Turner , Queen Ann 
 Street West. Drawn Etched and Engraved by J. M. W. 
 Turner P.A. 
 
 In front, the Loch, stretching across from the right, and shut in by 
 mountains in the distance. Several boats on the farther margin, under 
 the mountains. On the left, wooded hills sloping down to the shore. 
 In the left foreground, a pier, boats and fishermen. In front, a fluke 
 of an anchor showing in the shallow water, and a buoy on the right. 
 
 The Etching . First State. Before the buoy on the right. 
 The shadows of the boat on the left, and of the anchor, 
 incomplete. 
 
 The Etching. Second State. The buoy on the right added. 
 The shadows mentioned above continued to the margin of 
 the plate. More work on the wall and foreground. 
 
 First Published State. Two sailing-boats only on the farther 
 edge of the Loch. No bird flying over the water. Very 
 rare. 
 
 N.B. — Impressions in this State are by some considered to be 
 Engraver’s Proofs ; but the number I have met with, and 
 the fact of all bearing the full lettering, prevent my taking 
 this view. 
 
 Second State. Three sailing-boats on the farther edge of the 
 Loch ; the two on the left with dark sails, the other on the 
 right with white. A white bird added towards the right, 
 flying over the water. No mark in the margin. Bare. 
 
 Third State. A mark resembling a small arrow-head at the 
 right lower corner in the margin. Worn throughout. The 
 sky especially becomes very hard, and the effect of the 
 mists on the distant mountains is nearly lost. * 
 
74 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 Fourth State. Tko mark in the margin in the preceding State 
 with additional strokes, giving it the form of an irregular 
 capital H. Still more worn and bare throughout. 
 
 Fifth State. Entirely re-mezzotinted throughout, and in early 
 impressions very dark. The bird and its reflection taken 
 out. The cloud's in the sky have a heavy, patchy effect. 
 The mountain contours entirely altered — a perpendicular 
 line now divides the principal summit for about an inch 
 from the peak downwards, into a light and a dark portion ; 
 and new work is added on the extreme right ridge of the 
 same mountain, as well as on its lower flank. 
 
 I have been able to obtain no information of any Drawing 
 for this plate. 
 
 Loch Fyne , from first to last Turner’s own work, has 
 always ranked as one of the most delightful of the Liber 
 subjects. Composition, light, water, mountains and sky, 
 are alike perfect. But their perfection was, alas, a rapidly 
 fading one ; the delicate mezzotint work, like most of 
 Turner’s mezzotinting, was nearly as evanescent as those 
 mists on the mountains which it rendered. After but a 
 few impressions had been taken we miss the charm of 
 the aerial effect ; there is a hard scratchy look with the 
 outline of cloud and mountain, and the rich depth of the 
 woods is lost. Finally Turner re-mezzotinted the plate all 
 over, darkening and greatly altering it, and giving it the 
 effect of a much earlier hour in the morning. In this, its 
 latest State it curiously resembles a proof I once saw, taken 
 at a very early, incomplete stage. It may still be said to 
 be fine, though it does not approach its first beauty. 
 
 Mr. Hamerton ( Etching and Etchers , 1st Ed. p. 88) has 
 the following interesting remarks on the plate : — 
 
 “ This view of Inverary shows as well as anything in the ‘ Liber 
 Studiormn,’ what sort of duty Turner intended his coarse etched lines 
 to do. The combination of etching with mezzotint was a marriage of 
 
LIBER STUDIO RUM. 
 
 75 
 
 two opposite arts. Turner, therefore, avoided in his work with the 
 needle every kind of labour which might intrude upon the domain of 
 mezzotint ; he even did more than this, and purposely sought in every 
 etched line a quality the very opposite of that softness and tenderness 
 of tint which became his chief objects when he took up the tools of 
 the engraver. The striking contrast between methods of work in this 
 plate is focussed in the very centre of it. The pale mountain towards 
 Glen Falloch is engraved with aerial delicacy, the morning shadows 
 fall in soft gradations from the risen wreaths of mist, and against the 
 very tenderest passage of all, the opening of the distant glen, comes 
 the stiff mast and coarse sail of a fishing-boat, of the firmest and 
 boldest execution. The heavily etched anchor rising out of the shallow 
 water in the foreground sets its iron rigidity, by a similar contrast of 
 method, against the soft and liquid surface. To the left this coarseness 
 loses itself more gradually in greater manual refinement, and the 
 transition from the dark boat under the pier to the far trees on the 
 edge of the wooded hill, is managed by a subtle blending of lighter 
 and shallower bitings with rich full shades of mezzotint.” 
 
 Mr. Wedmore also {Studies in English Art, p. 184,) says 
 of tlie Etching : — 
 
 “ The pure etching of this subject ... is very specially noteworthy: 
 never in so few lines — no, not I think even in the G oldweigher’s Field 
 or Six’s Bridge of Rembrandt, the lightest of his landscapes, and 
 therefore the most fairly to be compared with this — never in so few 
 lines has so much of air and space, and the stillness of water and the 
 grace of landscape form, been so potently indicated. And it is very 
 noteworthy, that just as the great Dutch master gives the sense of a 
 serene breadth of sky (as in the Cottage and Dutch Hay-barn ) not by 
 working, but by omitting to work, so does Turner m his outline etching 
 of Inverary Pier give, by pure omission, the sense of the stillness of 
 water. The introduction of the anchor, breaking the dead level, is an 
 instance, to all who see it, of his supremest skill.” 
 
 Another, widely differing, view of Inverary was engraved 
 by Heath from an early drawing by Turner for Mawman’s 
 “ Excursion to the Highlands of Scotland,” published in 
 1805. It is stiff, and utterly topographical. There is also 
 a fine drawing of Inverary at Earnley. 
 
76 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 No. 36. FEOM SPENSER’S FAIRY QUEEN. 
 
 Published June 1st , 1811, by J. M. W. Turner, Queen 
 Ann Street West. Drawn and Etched by J. M. W. Turner 
 Esq. R.A. Engraved by T. llodgetts. 
 
 On a plateau ot rock in the left foreground, surrounded by high, 
 rocky hills, a knight sitting, his head resting on his shield, and a 
 sword in his hand ; other armour beside him ; two high, bare trees 
 above him. Large birds flying towards, and perching on the trees. 
 Morning light breaking over the hills. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. Before the mark in the margin. 
 
 Second State. A single vertical stroke at the right lower 
 corner, in the margin, under the word ‘ Hodgetts.’ 
 
 Often little inferior to the First State. 
 
 Third State. The mark in the margin altered to an irregular 
 
 o o 
 
 capital IT. The shield, the trunks of the trees, and other 
 parts lightened. 
 
 Often fair. 
 
 I have been able to obtain no information of any Drawing 
 for this plate. 
 
 This plate seems to suggest a rivalry with Salvator 
 Rosa, or at least to show his influence. No one has, I 
 believe, been able to discover what passage in the * Fairy 
 Queen’ Turner had in his mind here. Apparently the 
 subject represents a knight watching his armour. 
 
LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 77 
 
 PART VIII. 
 
 ISSUED FEBRUARY 1, 1812. 
 
 No. 37. WATER-MILL, [p] 
 
 Published February 1, 1812, by J. M. W. Turner , Queen 
 Ann Street West. Drawn and Etched by J. M. W. Turner. 
 Engraved by R. Dunbarton. 
 
 A water-mill, its gable in full front, with the mill-wheel on the right, 
 and a cow-shed at the back ; a mill-stone leaning against the wall. In 
 the foreground, on the right, two horses drinking and a dog opposite ; 
 on the left, steps, down which a woman is descending with sheaves in 
 her arms. The mill-dam, with trees beyond, in the distance. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. Before the mark in the margin. 
 
 Second State. A mark resembling a capital A in the left 
 lower corner in the margin. 
 
 Often fairly good. 
 
 The Drawing is in the National Gallery. 
 
 Mr. Ruskin speaks of this (M. P. vol. i. p. 125) as ‘‘the 
 beautiful and solemn rustic subject called a Water-mill.” 
 Later in the work (vol. v. p. 336) he notices it again : — 
 
 “ Then the water-mill beyond the fallen steps, overgrown with the 
 thistle ; itself a ruin, mud-built at first, now propped on both sides ; 
 the planks torn from its cattle-shed ; a feeble beam, splintered at the 
 end, set against the dwelling-house from the ruined pier of the water- 
 course ; the old mill-stone — useless for many a day — half buried in 
 slime, at the bottom of the wall ; the listless children, listless dog, and 
 the poor gleaner bringing her single sheaf to be ground.” 
 
78 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 No. 38 . WOMAN AT A TANK, [e.p.] 
 
 (Also called ‘ Hindoo Ablutions.’) 
 
 Published February 1, 1812, by J. M. W. Turner , Queen 
 Ann Street West. Drawn and Etched by J. M. W. Turner. 
 Engraved by W. Say , Engraver to H.R.H. the Duke of 
 Gloucester. 
 
 In the foreground, a tall stone-pine, below which a woman, 
 half naked, is stooping over a tank. On the right, a stream 
 flowing past a bank of trees, and disappearing under a bridge in 
 the centre. On the left, a row of trees, and two figures tending a 
 flock of sheep. In the distance the ruins of temples and buildings ; 
 hills beyond. 
 
 The Etching. First State. Before the line of distant hills on 
 the horizon. 
 
 The Etching. Second State. A line of distant hills on the 
 horizon. 
 
 First Published State. Before the mark in the margin. 
 
 Second State. A mark resembling a broad capital A at the 
 left lower corner, in the margin. 
 
 Often fine, and but little inferior to ordinary impressions of 
 the First State. 
 
 The Drawing is in the National Gallery. 
 
 • 
 
 Exceedingly fine, both as Etching and Engraving. In 
 the former the strong, heavily-etched head of the stone- 
 pine, magnificently drawn, contrasts w T ell with the slender, 
 graceful trees on the left. The Print is intensely poetical 
 in feeling throughout There is a singular charm in the 
 
LIBER STUDIO RUM. 
 
 79 
 
 subdued but strong glow of sunset over the whole scene. 
 The general idea may have been suggested by pictures of 
 Claude’s or Wilson’s, but we must feel that alike in com- 
 position as in treatment, both Claude and Wilson are 
 surpassed here. 
 
 Mr. Buskin ( Elements of Drawing , p. 134 , note) ranks 
 the Etching as one of the five finest of the published 
 plates. 
 
80 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 No. 39. CRYPT OF KIRKSTALL ABBEY. 
 
 Original Drawing in the possession of John 
 Soane Esq. R.A. Professor of Architecture. 
 23 In 5 , by 36 In 5 , [a] 
 
 Published February 11, 1812, by J. M. W. Turner, Queen 
 Ann Street West. Drawn Etched ana. I Engraved by J. AT. 
 TV. Turner Esq. P.A. P.P. 
 
 A crypt, with round Norman pillars and a vaulted roof. On the 
 left, light streams down an opening on a group of cows lying and 
 standing round one of the pillars. Through another opening, trees 
 and fields are seen. A pool of water in the right foreground. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. Before the mark in the margin. 
 Through the open doorway two trees only seen in the 
 distance. The shade on the pillar on the left sharply 
 defined, having almost the effect of a vertical line. 
 
 Second State. A mark resembling a capital A in the left 
 lower corner in the margin. 
 
 Much of the reflected light on the walls, the arches, and the 
 vaulting of the roof, lost. The shade on the pillar on the 
 left softer and more rounded. Through the open doorway 
 an appearance of a row of distant trees. 
 
 Sometimes fine, but always inferior in luminousness to the 
 
 J 
 
 First State. 
 
 Third State. The same mark in the margin as in the Second 
 State. 
 
 The roof almost uniformly dark in tone, the reflected lights 
 on it nearly lost. Through the open doorway the distant 
 trees appear an almost undefined mass. 
 
 Very dull and inferior. 
 
LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 81 
 
 Fourth State. The same mark in the margin. Heavily 
 reworked in mezzotint throughout, and completely altered. 
 The bright efiect of the rays of light from the left 
 entirely lost. Ho luminousness any where, but the whole 
 plate extremely dark, heavy, and inferior. 
 
 The Drawing is in the National Gallery. 
 
 Kirkstall was a favourite subject with Turner. Hfe 
 p ainted it joften , and it was engraved as one of his 
 illustrations to Britton’s Architectural Antiquities, pub- 
 lished some years before Liber. Its utter ruin and 
 neglect, marked by the crypt being occupied at their 
 will by cattle, must have struck him deeply one 
 would think, for he always draws them there. Mr. 
 Buskin, in his striking chapter on c The Two Boy- 
 hoods 5 {M. P. vol. v. ch. ix. p. 298), exquisitely 
 touches on the painter’s first visit to Yorkshire and 
 to Kirkstall : — 
 
 “ Beauty and freedom and peace ; and yet another teacher graver 
 than these. Sound preaching at last here, in Kirkstall crypt, concern- 
 ing fate and life. Here, where the dark pool reflects the chancel 
 pillars, and the cattle lie in an unhindered rest, the soft sunshine on 
 their dappled bodies, instead of priest’s vestments ; their white furry 
 hair, ruffled a little, fitfully by the evening wind, deep scented from the 
 meadow thyme. Consider deeply the import to him of this, his first 
 sight of ruin, and compare it,” . . &c. 
 
 The plate was entirely Turner’s work. The Etching 
 shows a good deal of work with the ‘ roulette ’ (a tool 
 usually employed only by engravers), doubtless intended 
 to heighten the effect. Its masterly architectural drawing 
 is most conspicuous. Notice the beauty and precision 
 with which the Norman ‘ cushion ’ capitals, and the lines 
 of the arches and of the vaulting shafts are rendered. 
 In the Print, the bold chiaroscuro, and the luminousness 
 
 G 
 
82 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 (from reflected light) of the walls and roof are no less 
 striking. Only in the First State however can the beauty 
 of the plate he truly seen. The mezzotint stood better 
 than some of his earlier work ; hut here again, as in Loch 
 Fyne , the whole plate had to be gone over and re- 
 worked, the result being the dismal impressions of the 
 Fourth State. 
 
LIBER STUDIO RUM. 
 
 83 
 
 No. 40. PICTURE IN THE POSSESSION OF 
 Sir JOHN MXLDMAY, Bart. 3 Feet by 4 Feet, [m] 
 
 (Usually known as the ‘ Mildmay Sea-Piece.’) 
 
 Published February 11, 1812, by J. M. W. Turner , Queen 
 Ann Street West. Prawn and Etched by J. M. W. Turner. 
 Engraved by W. Annis and J. C. Easting. 
 
 The sun setting over the sea, on which are two fishing-boats ; the 
 left one distant and in shadow. In front, on the left, fishermen 
 standing by a boat on shore ; casks and timbers behind ; on the right, 
 a woman and a boy ; behind them an anchor. 
 
 The Etching. First State. Before the figures of the men in 
 the boat on the right. 
 
 The Etching. Second State. Figures added in the boat. 
 
 First Published State. Before the mark in the margin. No 
 light on the sails of the distant boat. 
 
 Second State. A mark resembling a capital A at the left 
 lower corner in the margin. A light on the left sail of the 
 distant boat. Light horizontal bars of cloud added in the 
 space above the sun, just where the rays vanish. 
 
 Third State. The same mark in the margin. The shadow 
 of the boy running, darkened and lengthened considerably, 
 reaching to the lower margin. The shadow from the boat 
 on shore on the left also darkened and lengthened. 
 
 I have been able to obtain no information of any Drawing 
 for this plate. 
 
 A delightful study of sea and clouds. The Etching 
 though very slight, shows a master’s handling in its 
 exquisite rendering of the lines of the small rippling 
 waves. Observe how the distant boat on the left ‘ lifts/ 
 and with what skill its course is indicated by just 
 three lines of sea in its wake. The casks in the 
 foreground appear to me to show work added by the 
 Engraver. See remarks in Appendix C., List No. 2. 
 
 c 2 
 
84 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 No. 41. PROCRIS AND CEPHALUS. [h] 
 
 Published February 14, 1812, by J. M. W. Turner , Queen 
 Ann Street West. Drawn and Etched by J. M. W. Turner. 
 Engraved by G. Glint. 
 
 In front, a wide path through a grove of trees, the branches of 
 which meet overhead. In the left foreground, the figure of Procris 
 with an arrow in her breast, supported in the arms of Cephalus ; two 
 dogs behind him. On the right, an open glade, with the sun’s rays 
 showing faintly in the distance. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. Before the mark in the margin. 
 
 Second State. A mark resembling a capital A at the left 
 lower corner in the margin . 
 
 Sometimes extremely fine, and then perhaps preferable to the 
 frequently heavily-printed impressions of the First State. 
 
 The Drawing is in the National Gallery. 
 
 The freedom and truth of the drawing of the trunks, 
 boughs, and foliage in this plate must strike every one. 
 Mr. Buskin has alluded to it in the passage quoted with 
 Blair Athol (No. 30). 
 
 He lias written also very fully of it as typical of Turner’s 
 imaginative power in landscape. lie says (If. P. vol. ii. 
 p. 155) 
 
 “ But for immediate and close illustration, it is perhaps best to refer 
 to a work more accessible, the Cephalus and Procris of Turner in the 
 Liber Studiorum. I know of no landscape more purely or magnificently 
 imaginative, or bearing more distinct evidence of the relative and 
 simultaneous conception of the parts. Let the reader first cover with 
 his hand the two trunks that rise against the sky on the right, and ask 
 himself how any termination of the central mass so ugly as the straight 
 
LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 85 
 
 trunk which he will then painfully see, could have been conceived or 
 admitted without simultaneous conception of the trunks he has taken 
 away on the right l Let him again conceal the whole central mass, and 
 leave these two only, and again ask himself whether anything so ugly 
 as that bare trunk in the shape of a Y, could have been admitted 
 without reference to the central mass ? Then let him remove from 
 this trunk its two arms, and try the effect ; let him again remove the 
 single trunk on the extreme right ; then let him try the third trunk 
 without the excrescence at the bottom of it ; finally let him con- 
 ceal the fourth trunk from the right, with the slender boughs at 
 the top : he will find in each case, that he has destroyed a feature on 
 which everything else depends ; and if proof be required of the vital 
 power of still smaller features, let him remove the sunbeam that comes 
 through beneath the faint mass of trees on the hill in the distance.” 
 
 Of this ray of light he further writes ( M.P . vol. ii. 
 
 p. 201) : — 
 
 “ I suppose few in looking at the Cephalus and Procris of Turner, 
 note the sympathy of those faint rays that are just drawing back and 
 dying between the trunks of the far-off forest, with the ebbing life of 
 the nymph, unless, indeed, they happen to recollect the same sympathy 
 marked by Shelley in the Alastor.” 
 
 Elsewhere he speaks of the subject as, with four or live 
 others, showing strongly the influence of Titian on Turner, 
 and he places (. Elements of Drawing , p. 134, note) the 
 magnificent Etching among the five finest of the published 
 ones. 
 
 The engraver’s work was well done (by Clint,) and stood 
 printing longer than many of the Liber plates. 
 
 The death of Procris is one of the subjects of Claude’s 
 Liber Yeritatis ; but the treatment there is widely different, 
 and could in no way have suggested Turner’s. 
 
86 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 PART IX. 
 
 ISSUED APRIL 23, 1812. 
 
 No. 42. WINCHELSEA, SUSSEX, [p] 
 
 Published April 23, 1812, by J. M. W. Turner, Queen 
 Ann Street West. Brawn and Etched by J. M. W. Turner. 
 Engraved by J. C. Easting. 
 
 In front a road under a steep bank covered with trees, descending 
 sharply on the right to level country stretching beyond. Down the slope 
 men driving a flock of sheep. In the left foreground, a soldier with 
 knapsack and musket talking to a woman with a child in her arms, 
 and a boy beside her. Above them, on the left, a round tower 
 among trees. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. Before the mark in the margin. 
 
 Second State. A mark resembling a capital A in the left 
 lower corner in the margin. 
 
 Early impressions are often fine. 
 
 The Drawing is in the National Gallery. 
 
 Winchelsea seems to me full, whether intentionally or 
 not, of sharp contrasts. Notice how the steep hill is 
 thrown directly against the perfectly level plain ; the 
 dark woods against the light gleam in the sky ; the 
 thick foliage on the left against the hare tree on the right: 
 the soldier also contrasts with the shepherd, slowly jogging 
 behind the flock of sheep, and his musket with the boy’s 
 
LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 87 
 
 plaything, a kite. Turner seems to have had some asso- 
 ciation connecting Winchelsea with soldiers ; in the view 
 of it in the ‘ England and Wales ’ we see a regiment 
 marching np the hill. 
 
 The pleasant glimpse we get here of the wide-stretching 
 flat country beyond, recalls Mr. Champneys’ descrip- 
 tions of it in his delightful hook A Quiet Corner of 
 England. 
 
88 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 No. 43. THE BRIDGE AND GOATS, [e. p.] 
 
 Published April 23, 1812, by J. M. IV. Turner , Queen 
 Ann Street West. Draivn and Etched by J. M. W. Turner 
 P.A. Engraved by E. C. Leans. 
 
 In the foreground, a walled bridge, over which men are driving a 
 flock of goats to the right ; trees on the right of the bridge. Beyond, 
 on the left, buildings, and a bridge of three arches crossing the valley. 
 Hills and a wide expanse of country in the distance. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. Before the mark in the margin. The 
 sun distinctly white against the sky. 
 
 Second State. The first stroke of a capital A at the left lower 
 corner in the margin. 
 
 The sun no longer distinct, the space round it having become 
 of the same tone, from the wearing of the plate.. 
 
 Third State. The mark in the margin altered to a capital A. 
 
 Before the clot in the bow of the initial letter (P). 
 
 Still more worn throughout. 
 
 Fourth State. The same mark in the margin as in the Third 
 State ; a dot in the bow of the P. 
 
 The sky re-worked, and the sun again taken out light against 
 it. Light clouds and rays added round the sun, and a light 
 space on the horizon below it. 
 
 The Drawing is in the National Gallery. 
 
 The Bridge and Goats , like The Woman and Tam- 
 bourine (No. 3), The Premium Landscape (No. 72), and 
 one or two other Liber plates, is clearly suggested by 
 (I had almost said borrowed from) the Liber Veritatis, in 
 which many similar subjects are to be found, some almost 
 
LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 89 
 
 exactly like the one before us. It was to have been the 
 first plate of the series, had the arrangement with F. C. 
 Lewis for engraving the work, already alluded to , 1 been 
 carried out. The inferiority, however, of aquatint to 
 mezzotint as a method of landscape-engraving must be 
 apparent to every one here, although Turner expressed 
 himself to Lewis as satisfied . 2 Possibly his later experience 
 of mezzotint so convinced him of the superiority of the 
 latter process that, not wishing to draw attention to this, 
 the only plate done throughout in aquatint, he omitted, as 
 wdll be noticed, to give Lewis’s name in the Frontispiece 
 among the Engravers of Liber . 3 
 
 The Bridge and Goats is however far from being an 
 unattractive plate; and although aquatint fails ever to 
 reach the richness and brilliancy of mezzotint, yet it 
 appears to me, on the other hand, to have the advantage 
 of being much more permanent. Quite late impressions 
 have none of the utter bareness one usually sees in mezzo- 
 tint plates at the same stage. 
 
 1 See Introduction, p. viii. 2 See Appendix A, Letter No. 3. 
 
 3 Lewis had before engraved for Turner in mezzotint, a small plate of 
 ColebrooJc Dale. I do not know its date, but from the style it must evi- 
 dently have been from a very early drawing or picture, and, from its size, 
 no doubt for a book illustration. 
 
so 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 No. 44. CALM. Picture in the possession of 
 
 Published April 23, 1812, by J. M. W. Turner, Queen 
 Ann Street West. Drawn, Etched and Engraved by J. M. 
 
 A number of fishing-boats with sails hoisted, becalmed. A row-boat 
 containing five men, in front, towards the right. On the extreme 
 right, two men on shore with nets. In the distance, on the left, a 
 full-rigged ship ; many birds in the sky. 
 
 This plate was from first to last the work of Turner’s own 
 hand, and appears to have been the subject of several 
 experiments in engraving . 1 
 
 A. Pure Soft Ground Etching. 
 
 Only one impression known, in tho possession of Mr. J. E. 
 
 B. The same, with very faint patches of aquatint work. 
 
 One impression, belonging to Mr. Henry Vaughan. 
 
 C. The same, with aquatint work carried further. The 
 reflection of the men in tho row-boat thrown white on the 
 water. (This was afterwards removed.) 
 
 One impression belonging to Mr. Gambier Parry ; another, 
 slightly more advanced, to Mr. J. E. Taylor. 
 
 D. At this stage the plate was transformed, and mezzotint 
 took the place of aquatint over the soft ground etching. 
 Ho etched lines were as yet bitten-in. 
 
 One impression, belonging to Mr. Henry Vaughan. 
 
 1 For the description of these I am indebted to notes made by Hr. 
 Seymour Haden from the series of Proofs exhibited at the Burlington Fine 
 Arts Club in 1S72, and since revised by him. 
 
 J. M. W, Turner. 
 
 3 
 
 W. Turner. 
 
 Taylor. 
 
LIBER STU DI OR U M. 
 
 91 
 
 E. The same, with the principal lines bitten-in and the 
 mezzotint work carried further. Many spots and lines 
 visible in the sky arising from accidents in biting-in. 
 
 First Published State. Before the mark in the margin. The 
 light clouds in the upper sky bright and distinct. The 
 ripple at the bow and stern of the row-boat a bright white. 
 The spots and lines in the sky hidden by figures of birds 
 engraved over them. 
 
 Bare. 
 
 Second State. A mark resembling a capital A at the left 
 lower corner in the margin. The sky and the whole plate 
 worn and fainter throughout. The reflection of one of the 
 men on shore on the right thrown white on the water. 
 
 Third State (often called Fifth State). The same mark in the 
 margin. Much altered in effect. The sky paler; hardly 
 any traces of the light upper clouds visible, but a few very 
 small and faint patches of darker clouds added at the top. 
 Several white stripes down the large light sail in the centre, 
 and the broad sail with the flag taken out almost wholly 
 white. Many of the other sails taken out whiter. Gene- 
 rally printed in a richer and more golden tone of ink. 
 Usually considered the finest State of the plate. 
 
 Fourth State. The same mark in the margin. A dot enclosed 
 in the curve of the letter C of the title. Be-worked 
 throughout. Dull, heavy patches of cloud added all over 
 the sky. The distant white sail towards the right, just over 
 the head of the man steering the row-boat, has entirely dis- 
 appeared. The men on shore dark, with dark reflections. 
 Y'ery dull and inferior. 
 
 I have been able to obtain no information of any Drawing 
 for this plate. 
 
 The Calm — Turner’s own work throughout — is a very 
 beautiful plate, especially as we see it in its Third 
 State. Cuyp, we may suppose, must have been clearly 
 
92 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 before liis mind here. I have never seen the Picture, 1 
 but I imagine it to be one of those of which Mr. 
 Kuskin says (M. P. vol. iii. p. 331) — treating of the 
 teachers of Turner, and alluding to the effects of his 
 study of Eembrandt, De llooghe, and other of the Dutch 
 masters — “ he painted several pictures in imitation of 
 these masters; and those in which he tried to rival Cuyp 
 are healthy and noble works, being in fact just what most 
 of Cuyp’s own pictures are — faithful studies of Dutch 
 boats in calm weather on smooth water.” 
 
 Mr. We dm ore, in his Studies in English Art (p. 1S5), 
 describes the plate as “ a composition in which the mezzo- 
 tinter has given, and especially to the later States of the 
 plate, a colour and a sunniness that may recall, as you are 
 minded, the lagoon of Venice or the afternoon coasts of 
 Holland, or that old * Yarmouth Water Frolic,' with whose 
 glowing splendours a Norwich landscapist surprised us at 
 Burlington House.” 1 would however suggest that the 
 atmosphere here is too evidently charged with moisture, 
 and not clear enough, to enable us to imagine ourselves on 
 the Adriatic. 
 
 Mr. Hamerton’s remarks on the plate ( Etching and 
 Etchers 1st Ed. p. 90) will also be read with interest. 
 
 The birds were all added to conceal marks accidentally 
 made in biting-in the Etching. Turner had recourse to the 
 same device in the Mer de Glace (No. 50). 
 
 1 Mr. Algernon Graves tells me it was exhibited at Turner’s heu«e in 
 Harley Street in 1809, and subsequently became the property of Mr. 
 G. K. Burnett. It was sold at Christie’s in 1875. 
 
LIBER STUDIOBUM. 
 
 93 
 
 No. 45. PEAT BOG, SCOTLAND, [m] 
 
 Published April 23, 1812, by J. M. W. Turner , Queen 
 Ann Street West. Drawn and Etched by J. M. W. Turner 
 Esq. Po. A. Engraved by G. Clint. 
 
 A morass in the centre in deep shadow, surrounded by mountains ; 
 on the right edge, a fire. In front, labourers at work, cutting turf. 
 Heavy rain-clouds over the sky, with a rainbow on the right. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. Before the mark in the margin. The 
 light of the fire on the right reflected in the bog. Bare. 
 
 Second State. The first stroke of a capital A at the left lower 
 corner in the margin. No reflection of the fire in the bog. 
 Bare. 
 
 Third State. The mark in the margin completed to a capital 
 A. No reflection of the fire. The sky usually much duller 
 than in the First State. 
 
 Fourth State. The same mark in the margin as in the Third 
 State. A dot added in the centre of the ‘ o ’ of ‘ Bog ’ in 
 the title. Worn and altogether inferior. 
 
 The Drawing is in the National Gallery. 
 
 Peat Bog has always ranked among the great plates of 
 Liber. It is throughout eminently Turnerian. No in- 
 fluence of any other master, no reminiscences or traditions 
 of any earlier school, are to be traced in it. The painter 
 has gone straight to nature ; but how truly has he seen, 
 how finely has he drawn what he has seen ; how simply, 
 yet tellingly, has he composed his drawing. 
 
 I have alluded already to Turner’s absolute mastery 
 of wave-drawing as shown in the sea-pieces of the 
 Liber, and I would point to this plate as a perfect example 
 of his no less absolute power of rendering intricate and 
 
94 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 rapiclly-changing effects of wind and weather, light and 
 atmosphere. This is a field in which he is alike without 
 a predecessor and without a rival, and this of all his 
 powers is perhaps the one which gives the greatest charm 
 to his works. 
 
 Notice here the thick array of heavy clouds ; the down- 
 pour of the rain ; the gloom over the bog ; the gradually 
 clearing sky, across which the rainbow is breaking ; the 
 wet mists, clinging to the more distant hills and veiling 
 their forms even after the rain has left them. 
 
 The engraver’s work was well done (by Clint) ; finer 
 mezzotint work indeed than the sky it would be difficult 
 to imagine ; it was, however, of necessity so delicate 
 that the plate can only adequately he seen in early 
 impressions. 
 
 The Etching is also very forcible. 
 
 O 
 
LIBER ST U DIOR UM. 
 
 95 
 
 No. 46. 
 
 RISPAH : 2nd Booh of Samuel , Chap. 21. * [h] 
 
 Published April 23, 1812, by J. M. W. Turner, Queen 
 Ann Street West. Drawn and Etched by J. M. W. Turner 
 Esq. B.A. Engraved by B . Dunbarton. 
 
 The figure of Rizpah in the centre sitting, with a lighted torch in 
 her outstretched arm. Around her the dead bodies of her sons. 
 Beyond, to the right, a wild beast approaching ; a bird flying over a pool 
 in the right foreground. Sheaves and standing barley on the hill to the 
 right. Trees to the left. A new moon in the sky. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. Before the mark in the margin. 
 
 Often very heavily charged with ink in the printing. 
 
 Second State. A mark resembling a capital A at the left 
 lower corner in the margin. 
 
 Early impressions are very fine, and perhaps preferable to 
 heavily-printed First States. 
 
 Third State. A dot added in the bow of the ‘ P ’ of ‘ Bispah ’ 
 in the title. 
 
 Very dull and inferior. 
 
 The Drawing is in the possession of Mr. Henry Vaughan. 
 
 Of the few tragic subjects of Liber this one seems to 
 me the most successful. Tragedy is of course always a 
 perilous task for Art, but here, I think, even admitting 
 manifest faults in drawing, the real horror and the 
 genuine pathos forbid the too usual alternative of 
 disgust at success which is only melodrama, or amuse- 
 ment at failure which has passed, unperceived, into 
 
96 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 comedy. We shall hardly laugh, I think, at the weariness, 
 yet the patience, of a ceaseless watch, expressed in Bizpali’s 
 outstretched arm, scaring away with her torch the fast- 
 gathering birds and beasts of prey from the grim objects of 
 her care. 
 
 In the Drawing there is an addition to the effect, which 
 strangely has not been transferred to the Print. In the 
 former, the lion is finely and prominently drawn, checked 
 in full career and relieved against the sky, while in the 
 latter it is with difficulty we can make out that a lion 
 is intended at all. Yet the alteration was presumably 
 Turner’s own, as it was made in the Etching. 
 
 Mr. Buskin considers that this plate, which he ranks 
 (M. P. vol. iii. p. 324) among the four or five finest works 
 in the Liber, shows Turner “ strongly under the influence 
 of Titian.” Elsewhere ( M ’. P. vol. i. p. 128) he thus 
 alludes to it : — 
 
 “ The effect of Italy upon his mind is very puzzling. On the one 
 hand it gave him the solemnity and power which are manifested in the 
 historical compositions of the Liber Studiorum, more especially the 
 Rizpah, the Cephalus, the scene from the ‘Fairy Queen/ and the 
 iEsacus and Hespcrie ; on the other, he seems never to have entered 
 thoroughly into the spirit of Italy, and the materials he obtained there 
 were afterwards but awkwardly introduced in his large compositions. 
 
 “ Of these there are very few at all worthy of him ; none but the 
 Liber Studiorum subjects are thoroughly great, and these are great 
 because there is in them the seriousness, without the materials, of 
 other countries and times. There is nothing particularly indicative of 
 Palestine in the barley harvest of the Rizpah, nor in those round and 
 awful trees ; only the solemnity of the south in the lifting of the near 
 burning moon.” 
 
 o 
 
 The Picture is in the National Gallery. It differs very 
 considerably from the Drawing, and is not nearly so 
 impressive as the Print. 
 
LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 97 
 
 PART X. 
 
 ISSUED MAY 23, 1812. 
 
 No. 47. HEDGING- AND DITCHING, [p] 
 
 Published May 23, 1812, by J. M. W. Turner, Queen 
 Ann Street West. Dravm and Etched by J. M. W. Turner 
 Pi. A. Engraved by J. C. Easting. 
 
 In the foreground, a field ; on the left, two men bareheaded cutting 
 down a pollard tree ; sheep beyond. In the centre, a woman wearing 
 a man’s cap, her back to the spectator. A road in the distance with 
 fields on each side. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. Before the mark in the margin. 
 
 Second State. The first stroke of a capital A at the left lower 
 corner in the margin. 
 
 Often little inferior to the First State. 
 
 Third State. The mark in the margin completed to a capital 
 A. A dot in the bow of the initial letter P. 
 
 Be-worked throughout ; the sky much darkened and showing 
 the marks of the tool. 
 
 The Drawing is in the National Gallery. 
 
 This plate seems to come as a foil among a range of 
 subjects noble alike in idea and in treatment. There is 
 perhaps a certain homely truth about the bare fields and 
 leafless trees, suggestive of an English winter; probably also 
 a sympathy between “pollard trees and pollard labourers,” 
 as Mr. Ruskin has so well put it, but the figures have 
 
 H 
 
98 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 always appeared to me positively and needlessly repulsive. 
 One has but to recall the works of the great French 
 painter, Millet, to see how the same sense of the hard 
 features of nature, the same sympathy with the hard aspects 
 of peasant life, can he just as forcibly expressed, yet 
 with a pathos and a charm which are wholly wanting here. 
 "YVe shall, I think, again agree with Mr. Euskin when he 
 says {Notes on his Turner Dravnngs 1878, p. 33): — 
 
 “ In the Liber Studiorum the commonplace prevails to an extent 
 greatly destructive of the value of the series considered as a whole ; the 
 “ Hedging and Hitching/’ “ Watercress Gatherers,” “ Young Anglers,” 
 and other such plates, introducing rather discord than true opponent 
 colour among the grander de signs of pastoral and mountain scenery.” 
 
 In Hedging and Ditching however, as in Young Anglers 
 alluded to above, the fine drawing of the pollard trunks is 
 a noticeable and redeeming feature. 
 
LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 99 
 
 No. 48. RIVER WYE. [e.p.] 
 
 (Originally called ‘ Chepstow Castle.’) 
 
 Published May 23, 1812, by J ’ M. W. Turner, Queen Ann 
 Street West. Drawn and Etched by J. M. W. Turner Esq. 
 P.A. P.P. Engraved by W. Annis. 
 
 A river in front, winding below a wooded hill, on which are the 
 ruins of a castle ; below the castle, barges on the water, with a fire 
 and smoke beside them. Boys bathing in the river, and a group of 
 cows on the left bank. In the distance on the left a bridge, and 
 cliffs beyond. 
 
 The Etching. First State. Before the figures of the bathers. 
 
 The Etching. Second State. Bathers on the left bank and in 
 the river. 
 
 First Published Stale. Before the mark in the margin. Bare. 
 
 Second State. The first part of a capital A at the left lower 
 comer in the margin. The woods lose in richness and 
 gradation. 
 
 Third State. The mark in the margin completed to a capital A. 
 
 Fourth State. The mark in the margin as in the Third State. 
 A ray of light added on the slope of the wooded hill, 
 falling from a break in the castle buildings, to the smoke 
 by the barges below. 
 
 Fifth State. The same mark in the margin. The smoke below 
 the castle which in the preceding States has been a round 
 mass, is now prolonged to the left. The ray of light on 
 the woods hardly visible. New light clouds added in the 
 upper sky, and more lights taken out on the foliage. 
 
 The Drawing is in the National Gallery. 
 
100 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 The fine scenery about Chepstow seems to have had an 
 early attraction for Turner. In 1794 we find him drawing 
 the Castle for an illustration to the Copper-Plate Magazine , 
 and we have already seen the delightful Junction of the 
 Severn and Wye (No. 28) in Liber. Now he treats the 
 Castle, from the meadows across the Wye. It is in- 
 teresting to compare the stiff topographical draughtsman 
 of 1794 with the poetical painter of 1812 — those eighteen 
 years have made a difference indeed ! 
 
 Some impressions have a beautiful effect as of 
 warm mists rising from the river, but I am not sure 
 whether this was intentional, or whether it came about 
 accidentally in printing ; I do not observe it in the 
 Drawing. 
 
 Lor notes on the delicate and beautiful Etching of this 
 plate, see Appendix C. List No. 2. 
 
LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 101 
 
 No. 49. 
 
 CHAIN OF ALPS FROM GRENOBLE TO 
 CHAMBERI. [m] 
 
 Published May 23, 1812, by J. M. W. Turner , Queen 
 Ann Street W zst . Drawn and Etched by J. M. W. Turner 
 Esq. E.A. F.P. Engraved by W. Say, Engraver to the 
 Prince Regent and H.R.H. the Duke of Gloucester. 
 
 A wide, cultivated plain, with trees, villages, &c., crossed by a 
 straight road from the right lower corner. To the right, hills ; a fire 
 below on the plain. In the distance many mountain chains, with snow- 
 peaks just visible beyond. In the foreground, on a plateau, a vineyard 
 with several figures. Rays of light strike downwards over the plain. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. Before the mark in the margin. Rare. 
 
 Second State. The first stroke of a capital A at the left lower 
 corner, in the margin. The rays of light across the plain 
 less distinctly visible. 
 
 Early impressions are sometimes very fine. 
 
 Third State. The mark in the margin altered to a capital A. 
 Often fairly good. 
 
 Fourth State. The same mark in the margin as in the Third 
 State. A dot added in the ‘ o ’ of Grenoble in the title. 
 Re-worked and darkened. The rays only visible in the 
 upper sky. 
 
 Dull and inferior. 
 
 The Drawing is in the National Gallery. 
 
 This is another eminently Turneresque subject, though 
 the striking and always pleasant effect of fiat country 
 
102 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 thrown into light and shadow by rays breaking here 
 and there, was already well known to the Dutch land- 
 scape painters. Turner may have seen it possibly in 
 the works of De Koninck or Solomon Buysdael; at all 
 events we often find him using it in his pictures and 
 drawings, and in those of a comparatively early period, 
 and seldom with more success than as we see it here. 
 
 Mr. Buskin is not satisfied with the drawing of the 
 vines in the foreground, and amusingly remarks (M.P. 
 vol. i. p. 126 ) that “ in the foreground of the Grenoble 
 Alps, Turner is, like many other great men, overthrown by 
 the vine/' 
 
 The Etching, though fine, has a curiously dotty effect. 
 
LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 103 
 
 No. 50. 
 
 MER DE GLACE— VALLEY OF CHAMOUNI— 
 
 SAVOY, [m] 
 
 Published May 23, 1812, by J. M. W. Turner, Queen 
 Ann Street West. Drawn, Etched, and Engraved by J . M. 
 W. Turner Esq. P.A. P.P. 
 
 A glacier in the centre, with mountains on both sides. A ray of 
 light strikes downwards from a gap in the peaks on the right. A 
 bird flying in the left foreground. Snow-peaks and clouds in the 
 distance at the head of the glacier. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. Before the mark in the margin. Bare. 
 
 Second State. The first stroke of a capital A at the left lower 
 corner in the margin. 
 
 Less brilliant throughout. 
 
 Third State. The mark in the margin completed to a capital A- 
 Much more worn, and paler throughout. 
 
 Fourth State. The same mark in the margin as in the Third 
 State. Be-worked in mezzotint and the effect entirely 
 altered. The glacier very dark, except just in a patch in 
 the centre. No ray striking downwards from the gap in 
 the mountains on the right, though the gap itself is still 
 light. The clouds and distant snow-peaks at the head of 
 the glacier darkened and much altered. A bar of light 
 horizontal cloud added in the upper sky, about an inch 
 below the initial letter M. 
 
 Very heavy and inferior in effect. 
 
 I have been able to obtain no information of any Drawing 
 for this plate. 
 
104 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 Though this plate is very striking, both in its First as 
 well as in its very different Fourth State, we shall I think 
 be disposed to agree with Mr. Paiskin when, speaking of 
 the indelible influence for all his life on Turner of the 
 forms of English and especially of Yorkshire hill scenery, 
 he says of it (M. F. vol. i. p. 124) : — 
 
 “ Let the reader open the Liber Stndioram and compare the painter’s 
 enjoyment of the lines in the Ben Arthur with his comparative 
 uncomfortableness among those of the aiguilles about the Mer de 
 Glace.” 
 
 It will be found, I think, that much of the effect of the 
 plate depends upon its being placed at a sufficient distance 
 from the eye. Like the other glacier subject (A/wron, 
 No. I>0), it is seen to advantage at a good height. It is 
 throughout Turner’s own work, and 1 suspect was etched 
 and engraved by him direct from a sketch, or drawing in 
 colours, without any sepia drawing. 
 
 The bird on the left, and the other at the head of the 
 glacier, were put in to hide marks accidentally made in 
 “ biting-in ” the Etching. 
 
 The re-working in mezzotint, resulting in the very 
 altered and gloomy Fourth State, was necessitated no 
 doubt by the rapid wear which we notice in most of the 
 plates which Turner engraved himself. 
 
LIBER STUDIO RUM. 
 
 105 
 
 No. 51. EIVATJX ABBEY, YORKSHIRE. [a] 
 
 Published May 23, 1812, by J. M. W. Turner , Queen 
 Ann Street West. Drawn and Etched by J. M. W. Turner 
 E.A. Engraved by H. Dawe. 
 
 The ruined walls of the nave of the Abbey stretch across the plate, 
 with open arches below and two tiers of windows above. In front 
 the ground slopes to the centre from both sides. On the left, 
 the ruins of a tower ; a man sitting on the ground below. On the 
 right, trees. 
 
 The E 'telling. 
 
 First Published State. Before the mark in the margin. 
 
 Second State. A mark resembling an irregular capital iW at 
 the left lower corner, in the margin. 
 
 Often tine, and little inferior to the First State. 
 
 Third State. A faint mark resembling a reversed V, added, 
 just above the mark of the Second State. A dot added in 
 the ‘ o ’ of ‘ Yorkshire ’ in the title. 
 
 Often fairly good. 
 
 The Drawing is in the National Gallery. 
 
 The remarks I have made on Holy Island Cathedral 
 (No. 11) hold good of this, another purely architectural 
 subject of Liber, which was also very differently treated 
 by Turner in his ‘ England and Wales.’ 
 
 It is interesting to compare (especially in the Etchings) 
 this plate with Holy Island Cathedral and Kirhstall Abbey 
 (No 39), and to observe the superior skill and the evidently 
 greater pleasure with which, in those plates, Turner has 
 
106 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 drawn the round arches and columns of the Norman 
 architecture. In Eivaux , the lancet windows and pointed 
 arches of the Early English style are not rendered with 
 anything of the sharpness and precision which we admire 
 so much in the two Norman subjects. 
 
 A small but beautiful plate of Kivaulx Abbey was 
 engraved by J. C. Bentley after another drawing by 
 Turner. 
 
LIBER ST U DIOR UM. 
 
 107 
 
 PART XL 
 
 ISSUED JANUARY 1, 1816. 
 
 No. 52. SOLWAY MOSS, [p] 
 
 Published January 1, 1816, by Mr. Turner , Queen Ann 
 Street West. Prawn and Etched by J. M. W. Turner R.A. 
 Engraved by Thos. Lupton. 
 
 A broad estuary in the centre in shadow, the tide out ; across it a 
 long string of cattle is being driven, the foremost having reached the 
 higher ground in front. On the right, in deep shadow, a range of hills 
 with a fire under them. A thunderstorm overhead, with lightning in 
 the distance ; clear sky beyond. On the horizon faint gleams of 
 sea, and a line of hills. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. Before the mark in the margin. 
 Generally printed in a very red ink. Rare. 
 
 Second State. A single diagonal stroke in the left lower 
 corner in the margin. The lower and smaller flash of 
 lightning which in the First State is lost in a white cloud, 
 is now distinctly continued beyond the cloud, in a pointed 
 form, like the upper flash, but is still shorter than the upper 
 flash. The smoke lighter and more in relief. Fine. 
 
 Third State. Two parallel diagonal strokes at the left lower 
 corner in the margin. More lights taken out in the upper 
 part of the thunder-cloud, and on the wreaths of smoke 
 under the hill on the right. 
 
 Often fine. In early impressions of this State the upper part 
 of the thunder-cloud has a very brilliant effect. 
 
 Fourth State. A dot added in the ‘ 0 ’ of 4 Solway ’ in the 
 title. 
 
 Very worn and inferior. 
 
108 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 Solway Moss is one of the truly grand plates of Liber 
 — perhaps the grandest of them all. Both painter and 
 engraver seem to have surpassed themselves here. The 
 Etching is marvellous in its expression of the utmost 
 possible number of facts, and its rendering of miles of 
 distance, in the fewest possible number of lines and dots. 
 It would, I presume, be a marked example of what 
 Mr. Hamerton would call the “ power of abstraction ” in 
 etching. 
 
 It is scarcely needful to point out the supremely fine 
 rendering of thunderstorm and clearing sky — of light, 
 shadow, and reflections- — of rolling hills and wet sands — 
 which we have in the finished plate. No hand but 
 Turner’s could have given us such a picture as Sol way 
 Moss. 
 
 Mr. Henry Vaughan possesses a magnificent series — 
 seven or eight in number — of Engraver’s Proofs, in which 
 it appears to me we may trace, as Lupton submitted his 
 work from time to time to Turner, that the painter chose 
 continually to subdue the effect of the thunderstorm, and 
 in each impression to remove it further oil till it reached 
 its final stage. It will be noticed that even in the Pub- 
 lished States such alterations as were made were all in 
 the direction of lightening the plate. In early impressions 
 of the Third State, the effect of the altered and lightened 
 upper stratum of cloud is very beautiful, and goes far to 
 compensate for the wear of the plate in other parts. 
 
LIBER STUDIO RUM. 
 
 109 
 
 No. 53. SOLITUDE, [e. p.] 
 
 (Sometimes called ‘ The Heading Magdalen.’) 
 
 Published May 12, 1814, by J. M. W. Turner , Queen 
 Ann Street West. Drawn and Etched by J. M. W. Turner. 
 Engraved by W. Say, Engraver to H.B.H. the Duke of 
 Gloucester. 
 
 High trees in the foreground ; a castle and the sea seen in the 
 distance, through them. Under the trees in the centre, a woman 
 lying on the ground, reading ; a goat feeding beyond. Hills on the 
 left. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. Before the mark in the margin. 
 
 Second State. A single diagonal stroke at the left lower corner 
 in the margin. 
 
 The sky less brilliant, the castle lighter, and the horizon much 
 fainter. 
 
 Third State. Two parallel diagonal strokes at the left lower 
 corner in the margin. A dot in the bow of the initial 
 letter P. The whole plate re-worked and much richer in 
 effect ; the dark parts darkened, and the lights taken out 
 brighter, especially on the foreground leafage. 
 
 Fourth State. The same marks as in the Third State. ..Lights 
 taken out on the sea in the horizon. 
 
 The Drawing is in the National Gallery. 
 
no 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 No. 54. 
 
 MILL NEAR THE GRAND CHARTREUSE 
 DAUPHINY. [m] 
 
 Published January 1 , 1810, by Mr. Turner , Queen Ann 
 Street West. Prawn by J. M. W. Turner. Engraved by 
 
 11. Da, we. 
 
 A mountain gorge, down which, in the foreground, a stream falls 
 between large masses of rock. Beyond, a rude wooden bridge crosses 
 the gorge, with a mill below it. A steep wall of rock with pines on 
 its face rises to the left ; large trees on the right. A glimpse of sky 
 in the distance over the bridge. 
 
 o 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. Before the mark in the margin. 
 
 Usually very heavily printed in a red tone of ink. 
 
 Second State. A single diagonal stroke at the left lower 
 corner in the margin. Extremely rare. 
 
 Third State. Two parallel diagonal strokes at the left lower 
 corner in the margin. 
 
 The lights on the foliage, rocks, and water, taken out brighter. 
 Generally printed in a browner ink. 
 
 Fourth State. The same mark in the margin as in the Third 
 State. A dot added in the bow of the ‘ D ’ of ‘ Dauphiny ’ 
 in the title. 
 
 The Drawing is in the possession of Mr. Henry Vaughan. 
 
 The Mill near the Grand Chartreuse is the plate of 
 Liber which lias perhaps received from Mr. Buskin 
 higher and more frequent praise than any other. For 
 his opinions and descriptions of its merits, which will 
 have their due weight with all readers, I would refer them 
 
LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 Ill 
 
 to M. P. vol, i. pp. 125, 388 ; vol. iii. p. 324, vol. iv. p. 266 ; 
 yoI. v. p. 337. In his recently published Notes on his 
 Turner Drawings he says of it (p. 59) : — 
 
 “ My dear old friend and master in etching, Thomas Lupton, told 
 me he was sure there was a great deal of Turner’s own work in it ; and 
 of his mind more.” 
 
 I am unable myself to find this attractiveness in the 
 plate as it ultimately appeared, but in the Pye collection 
 of Liber in the Print Eoom of the British Museum there 
 is an early proof of surpassing beauty, possessing a breadth 
 and a charm of effect which, it seems to me, was after- 
 wards nearly destroyed by the addition of a number of 
 small lights over the rocks, water and foliage, giving a 
 general effect of what, for want of a better term, I should 
 call “ spottiness.” In addition to this, all the impressions 
 of the First State I have ever seen have been printed in 
 a very red-toned and thick ink. 
 
 For remarks on the Etching see Appendix C., List 
 No. 1. Mr. Seymour Haden has made a spirited Etching 
 of this subject. 
 
112 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 No. 55. 
 
 ENTRANCE OF CALAIS HARBOUR, [m] 
 
 Published January 1, 181G, by Mr. Turner , Queen Ann 
 Street West. Prawn , Etched, and Engraved by J. M. J l r . 
 Turner P.A. 
 
 Two fishing-smacks in front running into the harbour, the piers 
 of which are seen just beyond them ; other boats inside, and a 
 largo ship on the left, with sails set, coming out. The town in the 
 distance. A buoy on the right, carrying a signal or lantern. 
 
 No Etching is known to exist. 
 
 First Published State. Before the mark in the margin. Before 
 the dark bands of mezzotint along the nearer boat, over its 
 etched lines. Karo. 
 
 a Second State. Before tho mark in the margin. Two dark 
 bands of shading added on the hull of the nearer boat, over 
 tho etched lines, giving it a more rounded effect. Many 
 dark patches added on the waves. 
 
 This I consider the finest State of the plate, though the sky 
 is perhaps a trifle less brilliant than in the First State. 
 
 Third State. A single diagonal stroke at the loft lower corner, 
 in the margin. 
 
 Fourth State. Two parallel diagonal strokes at the left lower 
 corner, in the margin. A dot in the ‘ O ’ of ‘ Harbour’ in 
 the title. 
 
 Worn, and much lightened throughout. 
 
 I have been able to obtain no information of any Drawing 
 for this plate. 
 
LIBER STUDIO RUM. 
 
 113 
 
 Calais, its pier, its sands, its liarbour, and its fishermen 
 were favourite subjects of Turner’s, often painted by him. 
 Probably its unlikeness to an English port, and the 
 unlikeness of the ways of its people to the ways of 
 English people, had struck him on his first visit to the 
 Continent, and like his Yorkshire hills and St. Gotliard 
 Pass, his early impressions kept their hold on him 
 throughout his life. 
 
 Here, as in the National Gallery picture of “ Calais 
 Pier ” (painted in 1803), the fine wave drawing is what 
 chiefly attracts us. So good an authority as the late 
 Mr. Lupton once pointed out in another plate of Turner’s 
 own engraving, 1 the difference between the work of an 
 artist — a pcintre-gravmr — and that of a professional 
 engraver. No one of the latter class, he maintained, 
 could have rendered the effect of wind on the waves as 
 Turner did. 
 
 Mr. Euskin ( Elements of Drawing , p. 192) considers the 
 sky among the best of Turner’s storm studies ; the rapid 
 movement of the light, scudding upper clouds against the 
 dark background, is very fine. In early impressions, the 
 perfect gradation of the light from the left upwards over 
 the whole plate is also very noticeable. The red tone of 
 the ink is, I consider, to be regretted. 
 
 This plate would appear to be one of the few which 
 Turner engraved direct in mezzotint without any previous 
 etching. Mr. Gambier Parry and Mr. Henry Vaughan 
 possess very late Proofs which have no lines bitten-in. 
 The lines so plainly visible in the published States must 
 have been added after the mezzotinting was finished. 
 
 o 
 
 1 One of the rare series of small mezzotints sometimes called the 
 “ Sequel to Liber Stndiorum.” 
 
 I 
 
114 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 No. 56. DUMBLAIN ABBEY, SCOTLAND, [a] 
 
 Published January 1, 1816, by J. M. IT. Turner, Queen 
 Ann Street West. Drawn and Etched by J. M. W. Turner 
 Esq. II. A. Engraved by T. Lap ton. 
 
 A river in the right foreground, with a bridge of a single arch in 
 the distance. On tiie left, high wooded banks, on the top of which, 
 at the extreme left, is a ruined Abbey with square tower, Below the 
 bank, in the left foreground, women washing and drying clothes. 
 Rocks in the water on the right. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. Before the mark in the margin. 
 
 Second State. A single diagonal stroke at the right lower 
 corner in the margin. The light clouds in the upper sky 
 less distinct. 
 
 Third State. Two parallel diagonal strokes at the right lower 
 corner in the margin. A dot in the centre of the* O’ of 
 ‘ Scotland ’ in the title. The sky worn. More lights on 
 the foliage on the left bank. 
 
 The Drawing is in the National Gallery*. 
 
 Mr. Ruskin (Elements of Drawing , p. 133, note) speaks 
 of this plate as “ well etched by Mr. Lupton,’’ adding that 
 it was also “beautifully engraved by him." A letter 
 however from Lupton, in the possession of Mr. Henry 
 Vaughan, distinctly states that this is an error, and that 
 the Etching was, as stated in the margin, done by 
 Turner himself, Lupton’s work having been contined tc 
 the engraving. 
 
LIBER STUDIO RUM. 
 
 115 
 
 The Etching appears to me very fine ; the lines indicating 
 the foliage on the left, follow exquisitely the curve of the 
 bank, and are repeated in the group of figures below, and 
 carried on in the clothes which the woman is shaking out 
 before her. The drawing of the rocks in the pool on the 
 right, and of their reflections, is also very masterly. 
 
 We notice however that, as with Rivaux Abbey (No. 51), 1 
 Turner has bestowed comparatively little care on the 
 Pointed architecture of Dumblain. 
 
 1 See p. 105. 
 
 
 I 
 
116 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 PAET XII. 
 
 ISSUED JANUARY 1, 1816. 
 
 No. 57. NOBHAM CASTLE ON THE TWEED. 
 
 The Drawing in the possession of the late Lord 
 Lascells. [p] 
 
 Publish’d January 1 , 1816 , by J. 31. W. Turner , Queen 
 Ann Street West. Drawn and Etched by J. 31. W. Turner. 
 Engraved by C. Turner. 
 
 In tho centre, on a hill in deep shadow, the ruins of the Castle, the 
 sun setting behind it. In front, a broad shallow river. Cows in 
 the water and on the right bank ; a boat with men close to a hut on 
 the left bank, and a sailing boat under the hill. Hills in the distance 
 on the left. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. Before the mark in the margin. Bare. 
 
 Second State. A single diagonal stroke at the right lower 
 corner in the margin. 
 
 Generally fine. 
 
 Third State. Two parallel diagonal strokes at the right lower 
 corner in the margin. 
 
 Worn ; the gradations of tone on the castle hill lost. The 
 lights on the water, the cattle, and the banks, taken out 
 whiter. 
 
 In the collection of Mr. J. E. Taylor is a very late and 
 pale impression (from the Turner Sale), touched and scraped 
 all over, apparently for re-working ; but I have never met with 
 any impression showing that these intended alterations were 
 transferred to the plate. 
 
 The Drawing is in the National Gallery. 
 
 o J 
 
LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 117 
 
 Norham Castle was a subject of which Turner never 
 seemed to tire. His first picture of it appeared at the 
 Exhibition of the Eoyal Academy in 1798 — an Exhi- 
 bition by the way which contained no less than three 
 other Liber subjects — Dunstanborough, Holy Island Cathe- 
 dral, and Kirkstall. The Academy picture was a sunrise 
 effect, Thomson’s well-known lines from the “ Seasons ” 
 being appended as a motto. Was it the equally well- 
 known opening line of “ Marmion,” 
 
 “Day set on Norham’s castle steep,” 
 
 which afterwards struck him, and led him to associate 
 Norham, as he has here, with sunsets ? 
 
 It was engraved again in mezzotint by Charles Turner 
 in 1824, in the ‘ Eivers of England,’ as an exact fac- 
 simile (except in colour) of the Liber plate. Then, in 
 1827 Heath engraved Norham in line, and it was issued 
 as a single subscription plate. Again, in 1834 it furnished 
 an illustration (engraved in line by Miller) to Sir Walter 
 Scott’s Prose Works. Whether by sunrise, sunset or moon- 
 light, Norham was always delightfully rendered by Turner. 
 
 The following pencil notes written by Turner on the 
 margin of an Engraver’s Proof now in the collection of 
 Mr. C. S. Bale, show how carefully he studied the colour 
 of the ink for each plate : — 
 
 “ This is the colour I wish, but it must be observed that the same 
 ink will not on all the plates produce the same effect, therefore two or 
 more colours must be used, so that all the prints may appear the same 
 tone. When the printer is well set in please let me know.” “ The 
 three Prints I have sent are more of the bistre colour than yours, and 
 a fine rich bistre colour is the tint I want.” 
 
 The glowing sunset rays behind the Castle, which add 
 so much to the charm of the Print, do not appear in the 
 Drawing, nor even in very advanced Engraver’s Proofs* 
 These, though fine, are much more sombre, and give the 
 effect of a later hour. The rays must have been added 
 when the plate was on the eve of publication. 
 
118 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 No. 58. Usually called RAGLAN CASTLE. 
 
 o p 0 
 
 Published January 1, 1816, by J. M. TV. Turner , Queen 
 Ann Street 1 Vest. Drawn and Engraved by J. M. W. Turner 
 Esq. It. A. 
 
 The ruins of a castle on the right, surrounded by woods. In the 
 foreground, the moat overhung with trees and bushes, and crossed just 
 beyond by a small wooden bridge, below which a moor-hen is swim- 
 ming. On the left, hills aud woods. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. Before the mark in the margin. 
 
 Second State. A single diagonal stroke at the right lower 
 corner in the margin. 
 
 Third State. Two parallel diagonal strokes at the right lower 
 corner in the margin. 
 
 The lights on the foliage (on the right bank particularly) and 
 on the water, taken out sharper and whiter. The sky much 
 fainter. 
 
 The Drawing is in the possession of Mr. Henry A aughan. 
 
 If Solway Moss is the most perfect and most completely 
 Turneresque subject in the published part of Liber, Peat 
 Bog the wildest, Arveron the finest study of mountains, 
 Ben Arthur of hills, Severn and Wye of rivers, Loch Fyne 
 of still water, and Egremont Picture of sea, for woodland 
 loveliness Raglan must, 1 think, bear the palm. 
 
 Mr. Buskin’s inimitable hand has thus drawn it : — 
 
 “ Last and sweetest, Raglan, in utter solitude, amidst the wild wood 
 of its own pleasance ; the towers roimded with ivy, and the forest 
 roots choked with undergrowth, and the brook languid amidst lilies 
 and sedges. Legends of gray knights and enchanted ladies keeping 
 the woodman’s children away at the sunset.” 
 
LIBER ST U RIORUM. 
 
 119 
 
 I do not know how the name of Raglan attached itself 
 to this plate. Turner has given it no title. Neither the 
 castle nor the surroundings are like Raglan. It has, 
 however, marked resemblance to Berry Pomeroy Castle, 
 near Totnes, and we know that Turner was painting in 
 South Devon about a year before, 1 when probably he 
 would have visited so well known a ruin as Berry 
 Pomerojc The moat is now filled up, but the miller hard 
 by remembers when there was just such a moat as is 
 drawn here. 
 
 A likeness has also been seen in the plate to Goodrich 
 Castle, on the Wye. 
 
 The Etching is believed to have been the work of 
 Dawe. (See Appendix C., List No. 1.) The engraving 
 was no doubt Turner’s own, but Say would appear to 
 have also had some hand in it, as a Proof of the mezzo- 
 tinted plate (but not of the Etching), was included by 
 him in the collection of Proofs of all his works, now 
 in the Print Room of the British Museum. This col- 
 lection will be found referred to again in Appendix C. 
 
 1 Sir Charles Eastlake recollected meeting him in Plymouth in 1813 or 
 1814 (see Thoriibury’s Life of Turner, vol. i. p. 219), and “ Crossing the 
 Brook,” a Devonshire subject, was exhibited in 1815, the year in which 
 this plate must have been engraved, as it was published in January, 1816. 
 This is of course in no sense conclusive evidence as to its subject, but I 
 think it helps to support the view of its being Berry Pomeroy. 
 
120 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 No. 59. YILLE DE THUN, SWITZERLAND. 
 
 Published January 1, 1816, by Mr. Turner , Queen Ann 
 Street West. Drawn and Etched by J. M. W. Turner Pi. A. 
 Engraved by Thos. Hodgetts. 
 
 The town of Thun on a hill rising to the left ; several towers ; one 
 high up, very prominent. The lake on the right. In the left fore- 
 ground, a road under tall trees. On the right, a boat making towards 
 a pier in the centre, on which figures are standing. The Alps in the 
 distance on the right. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. Before the mark in the margin. 
 
 Second State. A single diagonal stroke at the left lower comer 
 in the margin. 
 
 Third State. Two parallel diagonal lines at the left lower 
 corner in tho margin. 
 
 Brighter lights taken out on the mountain and on the upper 
 clouds. 
 
 The Drawing is in the National Gallery. 
 
 This is one of the least satisfactory of the landscapes, 
 or combined town-and-landscapes, of Liber. Like Lauffen- 
 bourgh (No. 31), its failure is I think largely due to the 
 same engraver (Hodgetts), who has not done justice to 
 the far from unpleasing Drawing in the National Gallery. 
 The very red tone of ink in which we usually find it 
 printed, aggravates all its faults. 
 
LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 121 
 
 No. 60. 
 
 THE SOURCE of the ARVERON in the VALLEY 
 of CHAMOUNI, SAVOY, [m] 
 
 Published January 1, 1816, by Mr. Turner , Queen Ann 
 Street West. Drawn and Engraved by J. M. W. Turner 
 
 p.a. 
 
 A glacier descends from mountains on the right, with large boulders 
 and tall pines in the front partly hiding it. Below, a cultivated 
 valley, with mountains on the left and other ranges beyond, closing in 
 the view. Bright light breaks from behind dark clouds high up on 
 the right. 
 
 The Etching . 
 
 First Published State. Before the mark in the margin. 
 Generally somewhat heavily printed in a very red ink. 
 
 Second State. A single diagonal stroke at the left lower 
 corner in the margin. Bare and generally very fine. 
 
 Third State. Two nearly parallel diagonal strokes at the left 
 lower corner in the margin. Early impressions, especially 
 if printed in the browner ink, are often very fine. 
 
 The sepia Drawing is in the collection of Mr. Henry 
 Vaughan. The original Drawing in colours is at Earnley. 
 
 In Arveron again we are among the supreme subjects 
 of Liber ; though, like Raglan, the Etching 1 is probably 
 by Dawe’s hand, and weak, Turner’s own engraving has 
 more than atoned for its earlier defects. 
 
 Mr. Buskin has alluded to it in two fine passages, which 
 I quote below. To illustrate the first (M. P. vol. iv. p. 315) 
 he has had engraved in facsimile, by Lupton, the stones 
 
 1 See Appendix C., List No. 1. 
 
122 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 from the foreground, with the pines growing among them, 
 and another piece of foreground stones and trees, from 
 Ben Arthur (Ho. 69), contrasting them with a drawing 
 of rocks by Claude. He says : — 
 
 “ Turner’s way of wedging the stones of the glacier moraine together 
 in strength of disorder, in the upper subject ( Arveron), and his indica- 
 tion of the springing of the wild stems and leafage out of the rents in 
 the boulders of the lower one ( Ben Arthur), will hardly be appreciated 
 unless the reader is fondly acquainted with the kind of scenery in 
 question ; and I cannot calculate on this being often the case, for few 
 persons ever look at any near detail closely, and perhaps least of all at 
 the heaps of debris which so often seem to encumber and disfigure 
 mountain ground. But for the various reasons just stated (§ 7), 
 Turner found more material for his power, and more excitement to his 
 invention, among the fallen stones than in the highest summits of 
 mountains ; and his early designs, among their thousand excellencies 
 and singularities, as opposed to all that had preceded them, count for 
 not one of the least the elaborate care given to the drawing of torrent 
 beds, shaly slopes, and other conditions of stony ground which all 
 canons of art at the period pronounced inconsistent with dignity of com- 
 position ; a convenient principle, since, of all foregrounds, one of loose 
 stones is beyond comparison the most difficult to draw with any 
 approach to realization.” 
 
 In the second passage ( M.F . vol. v. p. 83), treating 
 of the characteristics of the pine : — 
 
 “ I wish the reader to fix his attention for a moment on these two 
 great characters of the pine, its straightness and rounded perfectness ; 
 both wonderful, and in their issue lovely, though they have hitherto 
 prevented the tree from being drawn. I say, first, its straightness. 
 Because we constantly see it in the wildest scenery, we are apt to 
 remember only as characteristic examples of it those which have been 
 disturbed by violent accident or disease. Of course such instances are 
 frequent. The soil of the pine is subject to continual change ; perhaps 
 the rock in which it is rooted splits in frost and falls forward, throwing 
 the young stems aslope, or the whole mass of earth round it is under- 
 mined by rain, or a huge boulder falls on its stem from above, and 
 forces it for twenty years to grow with weight of a couple of tons 
 leaning on its side. Hence, especially at edges of loose cliffs, about 
 waterfalls, or at glacier banks, and in other places liable to disturbance, 
 the pine may be seen distorted and oblique ; and in Turner’s “Source 
 of the Arveron,” he has. with his usual unerring perception of the 
 
LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 123 
 
 main point in any matter, fastened on this means of relating the 
 glacier’s history. The glacier cannot explain its own motion ; and 
 ordinary observers saw in it only its rigidity ; but Turner saw that the 
 wonderful thing was its non-rigiditv. Other ice is fixed, only this ice 
 stirs. All the banks are staggering beneath its waves, crumbling and 
 withered as by the blast of a perpetual storm. He made the rocks of 
 his foreground loose — rolling and tottering down together ; the pines 
 smitten aside by them, their tops dead, bared by the ice wind.” 
 
 Arveron, like Mer de Glace (No. 50), is seen to advan- 
 tage at some little distance above the eye. The Second 
 and Third States are nearly always printed in a browner 
 ink than the First State, and have then a singularly colder 
 effect. Hardly any impressions of the First State were 
 issued by Turner to his subscribers, but a considerable 
 number were found at his death. It seems to me not 
 improbable that he was dissatisfied with the red tone 
 and thick ink of the First State, and preferred the later 
 States. The same may possibly have been the case with 
 Bonneville (No. 64) and one or two other plates. 
 
124 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 No. 01. TENTH PLAGUE OF EGYPT, [h] 
 
 Published January 1 , 1816 , byJ.M. W. Turner , Queen 
 Ann Street West. Drawn and Etched by J. M. J V. Turner 
 Esq. R.A. Engraved by W. Say, Engraver to HTl.II. ilie 
 Duke of Gloucester. 
 
 Towers and buildings on the right, all in shade, but illuminated by 
 vivid lightning breaking from the left above a group of trees. Below 
 the trees, on a bank in the foreground, women in various attitudes 
 of grief, one stooping over a dead child. A building above on the 
 extreme left. The sky very dark. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. Before the mark in the margin. 
 
 At the last angle made by the lightning before it strikes the 
 buildings in the centre, it divides, branching to the left 
 towards tho trees, as well as to the right towards the 
 buildings. 
 
 Second State. A single diagonal stroke at the right lower 
 corner in the margin. 
 
 The lightning at the angle described above, strikes to the 
 right only,’ towards the buildings, the small fork to the left 
 having been removed. 
 
 The sky duller, and the lightning less brilliant. The lights 
 on the figures and on the foliage taken out whiter. 
 
 Third State. Two parallel diagonal strokes at the left lower 
 corner in the margin. 
 
 Much of the depth of the shadows lost ; the buildings no 
 longer stand out in relief by the lightning ; the whole 
 effect much duller. 
 
 The Drawing is in the National Gallery, and also the 
 Picture, from which it is taken with very slight modifications. 
 
LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 125 
 
 In early and fine impressions of this plate there seems to 
 me a striking sense of horror and terror, giving it much 
 more impressiveness than the Fifth Plague of Egypt 
 (No. 16). Something more than the luridness of even 
 a violent thunderstorm is felt to he in the air. Com- 
 pare it with the thunderstorms on the Lake of Thun 
 (No. 15), over Solway Moss (No. 52), and at the head of 
 the Ben Arthur ravine (No. 69), and you cannot doubt but 
 that the painter has meant you to feel that there is here 
 something beyond any mere physical cause of terror and 
 awe. This, but this alone, prevents its being a melo- 
 dramatic and wholly inadequate rendering of one of the 
 most sublimely- told tragedies of any literature. 
 
126 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 PART XIII. 
 
 ISSUED JANUARY, 1819. 
 
 No. 02. 
 
 WATERCRESS GATHERERS, Bail's Head , 
 Ferry Bridge , Twickenham, [p] 
 
 Published January 1, 1819, by J. M. IV. Turnery Queen 
 Ann Street West. Drawn and Etched by J. M. W. Turner 
 Esq. P.A. P.P. Engraved by Thos. Lupton. 
 
 A sluggish stream in tho foreground, flowing under a bank, with 
 reeds and trees on the right. On tho left bank, in front, a figure 
 stooping over the water, and a boat on the ground above. At the 
 extreme left a curving bridge, with figures sheltering under its parapet ; 
 a gig driving along the road to t lie right, below a long wall. Heavy 
 thunder-clouds overhead, through which, towards the left, bright light 
 is breaking. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. Before the mark in the margin. 
 Rare. 
 
 Second State. Two dots at the right lower corner in the 
 margin. Generally tine. 
 
 Third State. Two parallel horizontal strokes at the right 
 lower corner in the margin. 
 
 The brilliant effect of the sky much impaired. 
 
 I have been able to obtain no information of any Drawing 
 for this plate. 
 
LIBER STUDIO RUM. 
 
 127 
 
 The sky here is very splendid. The rest of the plate 
 seems to me uninteresting. Even Turner could hardly 
 impart a charm to subjects so commonplace as this dull 
 stretch of suburban road, with its long bare wall, un- 
 pleasant figures and prosaic gig . 1 We turn gladly to the 
 pleasanter Twickenham meadows, in the next plate. 
 
 1 Mr. Ruskin has recently remarked ( Notes on his Turner Drawings , 
 1878, p. 33), .... “in the Liber Studiorum the commonplace prevails 
 to an extent greatly destructive of the value of the series, considered as 
 a whole ; the ‘Hedging and Ditching,’ ‘ Watercress Gatherers,’ ‘ Young 
 Anglers,’ and other such plates, introducing rather discord than ’true 
 opponent emotion among the grander designs of pastoral and mountain 
 scenery.” 
 
128 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 No. 63 . TWICKENHAM— POPE’S VILLA. 
 
 (Sometimes called ‘ Garrick’s Temple and Hampton 
 
 Published January 1, 1819, by J. M. W. Turner, Queen 
 Ann Street West. Drawn and Etched by J. M. W. Turner 
 R.A. P.P. Engraved by II. Dawe. 
 
 A wide reach of smooth river with houses and trees in the distance. 
 On the right bank, meadows with tall trees, through which the 
 square, pinnacled tower of a church is seen ; beyond, a round 
 temple with pillars. On the left in mid-distance, a boat with white 
 sail. A general effect of strong sunlight. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published Slate. Before the mark in the margin. 
 
 Very rare. 
 
 Second State. Two dots at the right lower comer in the 
 margin. 
 
 Little, if at all, inferior to the First State. Bare. 
 
 Third State. Two parallel horizontal strokes at the right 
 lower corner in the margin. The tower and church slightly 
 darkened. 
 
 Often very fine. 
 
 The Drawing is in the possession of Mr. Henry Vaughan. 
 
 The Etching of this subject is very attractive. The 
 fine drawing of the farther group of elms should be 
 noticed. The Print conveys a delightful sense of strong, 
 midsummer sunshine, with pleasant suggestions of shade 
 from the tall trees, and cool airs from the river over 
 these Twickenham meadows. 
 
 Church.’) 
 
LIBER STUDIO RUM. 
 
 129 
 
 No. 64. BONNEVILLE, SAVOY, [m] 
 
 Published January 1, 1816, by J. M. W. Turner , Queen 
 Ann Street West. Brawn by J. M. W. Turner. Engraved 
 by H. Bawe. 
 
 Mountains on the right, their lower slopes covered with pines ; 
 below them a river crossed by a bridge. At the left of the bridge a 
 chateau with round tower, partly hidden by a group of trees. Snow 
 mountains in the distance. Two figures sitting on a boulder in the 
 left foreground. 
 
 The Etching . 
 
 First Published State. Before the mark in the margin. 
 
 Second State. A single diagonal stroke at the right lower 
 corner in the margin. 
 
 The hills lose gradation of tone, and become heavy ; the 
 trees by the bridge no longer appear in relief, but are a 
 heavjT-, dark mass. 
 
 Third State. Two parallel diagonal strokes at the right lower 
 corner in the margin. 
 
 The sepia Drawing is in the National Gallery. A Drawing 
 in colours from which it was apparently taken, is at Farnley. 
 
 Bonneville, with its chateau below the pine slopes, its 
 river and bridge, and its fine distant views of the Alps, 
 was a very favourite subject of Turner’s } 
 
 The Drawing has not the heaviness of the Print, which 
 was engraved by Dawe. The Etching was probably also 
 his work. See Appendix C., List No. 1. 
 
 1 Mr. Buskin has lately lent for exhibition a grand sketch of Bonne- 
 ville, which he considers to be the first Turner made. His remarks on 
 it ( Notes on Turner Drawings, 1878, p. 19) will be read with interest in 
 connection with the Liber plate. 
 
 K 
 
130 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 No. 65. INVERARY CASTLE AND TOAVN, 
 SCOTLAND ; the Drawing in the possession of 
 the Duke of Argyle. [m] 
 
 Published January 1, 1816, by J. M. W. Turner , Queen 
 Ann Street West. Drawn and Etched by J. M. W. Turner. 
 Engraved by 0. Turner. 
 
 The Loch, its waters breaking in small waves, stretches across from 
 the right, and is shut in by distant mountains extending across to 
 the left. Below the mountains, Inverary Castle and scattered 
 houses. On the left shore, two tall stunted pines ; below them, men 
 launching a boat, and nearer, several other boats with men. A brig 
 on the right and a small rowing-boat near it. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. Before the marks in the margin. 
 Rare. 
 
 Second State. Two dots at the right lower corner in the 
 margin. 
 
 Little inferior to the First State. Also somewhat rare. 
 
 Third State. Two parallel horizontal strokes at the right 
 lower corner in the margin. 
 
 Often very good. 
 
 The sepia Drawing is in the National Gallery. The large 
 coloured Drawing from which it was taken is now in the 
 possession of Mr. F. S. Ellis. 
 
LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 131 
 
 Mr. Kuskin has enlarged and re-engraved with great 
 effect, the two Scotch firs on the left, in the fine Etching of 
 this plate. He writes thus of them (M. P. vol. v. p. 67) : — 
 
 “ The two Scotch firs in Turner’s Etching of Inverary are both in 
 perfect poise, representing a double action : the warping of the trees 
 away from the sea-wind, and the continual growing out of the boughs 
 on the right-hand side, to recover the balance.” 
 
 In a note on the same page he points out that the 
 enlarging shows “ the care and minuteness of Turner’s 
 drawing, on the smallest scale.” The same remark would 
 also hold good of the drawing of the timbers of the boats, 
 especially of the one on the extreme left, which is a 
 good example of a point in which Turner is always 
 strong. 
 
 The very red tone of the sepia Drawing seems to have 
 been copied and even exaggerated in the Print. Good 
 impressions may occasionally be met with in a browner 
 ink, and are then much preferable. 
 
 I have already (p. 75) alluded to other views by Turner 
 of Inverary. 
 
132 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 No. 66. iESACUS AND HESPERIE. 
 Vide Ovid Met \ Booh XI. [h] 
 
 Published January 1 , 1819 , by J. A I IV. Turner , Queen 
 Ann Street West. Drawn , Etched , and Engraved by J. AI. 
 W. Turner Esq. Il.A. P.P. 
 
 A glade in a wood, with sunbeams breaking from the left through 
 the trees. In the centre a pool, on the right shore of which Hesperie, 
 half naked, is sitting dividing her hair. iEsacus is approaching from 
 the right, under the trees. Through a break in the woods on the 
 right, a glimpse of distant hills. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. Before the marks in the margin. 
 
 The face of Hesperie turned towards BEsacus. 
 
 Extremely rare. 
 
 Second State. Two dots at the right lower corner in the 
 margin. The face of Hesperie turned from Hlsacus. The 
 effect of the rays of light less brilliant. 
 
 Rare. 
 
 Third State. A single horizontal stroke at the right lower 
 corner in the margin. The faco of Hesperie hidden by 
 her hair and turned from /Esacus. The effect of the rays 
 of light much impaired. 
 
 Also somewhat rare. 
 
 Fourth State. Two parallel horizontal strokes at the right 
 low*er corner in the margin. Worn, and even in the earliest 
 impressions much inferior to the preceding States. 
 
 I have been able to obtain no information of any Drawing 
 for this plate. In a set of Liber belonging to the Earl of 
 Crawford and Balcarres, is an Etching slightly washed-in in 
 sepia, but hardly sufficiently, I think, to have been of use as 
 a guide for mezzotinting. 
 
 O C 
 
LIBER STUDIOB UM. 
 
 133 
 
 JEsacus and Hesperie is often considered to be tlie finest, 
 and it is probably the rarest, of the published Liber plates. 
 It can only be truly seen in a very early impression. 
 Then, as a landscape, it is simply enchanting, but the 
 unpleasant figure of Hesperie is unfortunately too promi- 
 nent to be overlooked, and mars what would otherwise 
 be a perfect picture. 
 
 Mr. Ham ert oil’s charming description of the plate 
 ( Etching and Etchers, 1st Ed. p. 86), I quote in full : — 
 
 “ Of all Turner’s Etchings this is the most remarkable for the grace 
 and freedom of its branch-drawing. It is a piece of simple brook 
 scenery, and materials not less graceful exist in abundance in all 
 northern countries which are watered by running streams. TEsacus, 
 the son of Priam, sought Hesperie in the woods ; and Turner, with 
 that love for water which characterises all true landscape painters, has 
 assigned as the place of meeting one of those sweet little solitudes 
 which from time immemorial have been dear to poets and lovers. She 
 is seated on the gently sloping ground at the edge of a shining pool ; 
 the water has been lately divided by stones which to the left of the 
 etching rise visibly above its surface, but it pauses at the feet of 
 Hesperie where she sits as she thinks alone. TEsacus still unperceived 
 by her, has just discovered her as he breaks through the branching 
 fern. Over the head of the nymph bends a boldly slanting tree, and 
 where its boughs mingle, to the left, there is a passage of such wild 
 and intricate beauty, that I can scarcely name its equal in the work of 
 the master-etchers. Over the head of EEsacus, and between the trunks 
 of the two principal trees, is a glade so full of tender passages of light 
 which are chiefly due to the work in mezzotint, that this plate may be 
 taken as a transcendent example of Turner’s power in both arts. The 
 brilliant freedom of the etched branches, the mellow diffusion of light 
 in the tinted glade, are both achievements of the kind which perma- 
 nently class an artist.” 
 
 The tree drawing, Mr. Euskin has alluded to in several 
 places in Modern Painters. In vol. i. p. 389, he says : — 
 
 “ Of the arrangement of the upper boughs, the Esacus and Hesperie 
 is perhaps the most consummate example ; the absolute truth and 
 simplicity, and freedom from anything like fantasticism or animal 
 form, being as marked on the one hand, as the exquisite imaginative- 
 ness of the lines on the other.” 
 
134 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 And in vol. ii. p. 157 : — 
 
 “Again it is impossible to tell whether the two nearest trunks of 
 the Esacus and Hesperie of the Liber Studiorum, especially the one 
 on the right with the ivy, have been invented, or taken straight from 
 nature ; they have all the look of accurate portraiture. I can hardly 
 imagine anything so perfect to have been obtained except from the 
 real thing ; but we know that the imagination must have begun to 
 operate somewhere, we cannot tell where, since the multitudinous 
 harmonies of the rest of the picture could hardly in any real scene 
 have continued so involuntarily sweet.” 
 
 He also calls attention (vol. i. p. 394, note) to the 
 drawing of the leaves, as an example of Turner’s power of 
 elaborating close foliage. 
 
 Both the etching and engraving were Turner’s own 
 work. 
 
 Mr. Buskin has recently (July, 1878) exhibited with his 
 Turner Drawings &c. in Bond Street, a small vignette 
 illustration of the same subject, which he has discovered 
 in an old translation of Ovid. 1 He writes of it : — 
 
 “It is unquestionably the first motive of (Turners) Esacus and 
 Hesperie, even to the angular disposition of the tree trunk.” 
 
 1 I do not know whose the translation is. At the foot of the vignette 
 appears London , printed for Martin and Lain, Fleet Street, Nov. 22, 
 
 171)4. 
 
LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 135 
 
 PART XIV 
 
 ISSUED JANUARY 1, 1819. 
 
 No. 67. EAST GATE, WINCHELSEA, SUSSEX. 
 
 Published January 1 , 1819 , by J. M. W. Turner , Queen 
 Ann Street West. Drawn and Etched by J. M. W. Turner 
 Esq. R.A. P.P. Engraved by S. W. Reynolds. 
 
 On the left, the ruined walls and gateway of a town, through which 
 a man is driving sheep and cattle. On a wooded bank beyond, to 
 the right, a ruined tower, with other men driving sheep below. An 
 archway on the right with trees above. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. Before the marks in the margin. 
 Bare. 
 
 Second State. Two dots at the right lower corner in the 
 margin. 
 
 Often good. 
 
 Third State. A single nearly horizontal stroke at the right 
 lower corner in the margin. 
 
 Fourth State. Two nearly parallel horizontal strokes at the 
 right lower corner in the margin. Be-touched throughout, 
 and many new lights on the foliage, trunks, and clouds. 
 Sometimes fair. 
 
 The Drawing is in the National Gallery. 
 
136 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 No. 68. ISIS. Picture in the possession of the 
 Earl of Egremont , 3 feet by 4 feet. [e. p.] 
 
 London, 'published January 1 , 1819 ,by J. M. TV. Turner , 
 Queen Ann Street West. Drawn and Etched by J. M. W. 
 Turner Esq. II. A. E.P. Engraved by W. Say , Engraver to 
 II. E. II. the DuJce of Gloucester. 
 
 A lake in the centre ; a round temple with columns on the left 
 bank, half hidden by a clump of trees in the left foreground ; below 
 the trees a small bridge. Trees along the right bank. A bridge of 
 three arches in the distance. In the centre and right foreground, bushes 
 and herbage, among which is a large sculptured stone with a peacock 
 perched on it. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. Beforo the mark in the margin. 
 Itare. 
 
 Second State. Two dots at the right lower corner in the 
 margin. 
 
 Also rare. 
 
 Third State. Two parallel horizontal strokes at the right 
 lower corner in the margin. 
 
 Fourth State. The same marks as in the Third State. 
 
 No reflection of the bird, in the water in the left foreground. 
 
 The Drawing is in the possession of Mr. Henry Vaughan. 
 
LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 137 
 
 This plate does not, as may be imagined, take its name 
 from the river Isis, but is a view of the Temple of Isis in 
 Petworth Park. 
 
 The masterly drawing of the foreground leafage, as well 
 as the beauty of the reflections in the water on the distant 
 shore of the lake, are very noticeable, especially in the 
 Etching. 
 
 A portion of the foreground has been reproduced by 
 Mr. Ruskin {M. P. vol. v. figs. 94, 95, 96) as typical of 
 Turner’s methods of composition, but his remarks, though 
 of great interest, would be scarcely of value here without 
 the figures accompanying them. 
 
138 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 No. 6*9. BEN ARTHUR, SCOTLAND, [m] 
 
 London, published January 1, 1819, by J. M. W. Turner , 
 Queen Ann Street West. Drawn and Etched by J. M. W. 
 Turner Esq. E.A. P.P. Engraved by T. Lupton. 
 
 A ravine between hills which sweep clown in large curves on either 
 side ; at its head it widens and is shut in by mountains in deep shadow 
 from dark thunder-clouds overhead on the right. A brook flows down 
 the ravine and is hidden by boulders in the foreground. Light clouds 
 on the left, some of which rest on the summits of the hills. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. Before the marks in the margin. 
 Extremely rare. 
 
 Second State. Two dots at the right lower corner in the 
 margin. 
 
 Also very rare. 
 
 Third State. Two parallel horizontal strokes at the right 
 lower corner in the margin ; the dot between them givies the 
 effect of a capital 11 placed horizontally. 
 
 Early impressions are very tine. 
 
 I have been able to obtain no information of any Drawing 
 for this plate. 
 
 This is the last great plate of the published portion of 
 the Liber, and I think it is not too much to say that, were 
 oil Turner’s other works lost, upon the strength of it 
 alone, his pre-eminent fame as a landscape draughtsman 
 might safely rest. Whose hand but his could have so 
 drawn those sweeping mountain curves, could have so 
 wedged in the loose array of stones at their base, could 
 have given that Grand gloom to the storm at the head 
 of the ravine, or the grace to the fleecy clouds which 
 cling about the hill-tops ? 
 
LTBER ST U DIOR UM. 
 
 139 
 
 No. 70. INTERIOR OF A CHURCH, [a] 
 
 Published January 1, 1819, % «7! M. W. Turner, Queen 
 Ann Street West. Drawn and Engraved by J. M. W. 
 Turner Esq. R.A. 
 
 The interior of a Gothic church ; candles in a chandelier in the 
 centre throw light on the clergyman and seated congregation on the 
 left. In front, a woman and child entering a pew. Tablets on the 
 walls, and a banner hanging above one of the arches. 
 
 The Etching was made in “ soft ground.” I am only able to 
 describe two of its States, but probably others exist. 
 
 The Etching. First State. "With little or no shading. The 
 pews, rails, and cloak of the woman entering a pew, white. 
 
 The Etching. Second Slate. Much more shaded. The pews 
 dark. The woman’s cloak shaded and the pillar beside her. 
 Both excessively rare. 
 
 Turner’s first intention, when proceeding to mezzotint the 
 plate, was to have given it a daylight effect, and in the first 
 Proofs the light enters from the right, from beyond the 
 communion-table. Mr. J. E. Taylor possesses a fine series 
 of these rare daylight impressions, and I have met with a 
 few others in various collections. The plate was apparently 
 finished, the date 1 and others letters added, when Turner from 
 some unexplained reason decided to change the effect to night. 
 An extremely curious and probably unique impression in the 
 possession of Mr. H. Hawkins shows the plate immediately 
 after its re-mezzotinting. Here seven small, distinct lights 
 in the chandelier, and one or two tiny reflections from them, 
 are alone visible ; all else is in profound, Bembrandt-like 
 gloom. With this however Turner was not satisfied, and he 
 
 1 All the daylight Proofs which T have noticed, have been dated 1810. 
 Possibly the copper was laid aside for a time before the alteration was 
 made. 
 
140 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 continued to scrape the mezzotint away till the ordinary 
 Published State was reached. 
 
 First Published State. Before the marks in the margin. Bare. 
 
 Second State. Two dots at the right lower corner in the 
 
 margin. Bare. 
 
 Third State. Three nearly parallel horizontal strokes at the 
 
 right lower corner in the margin. 
 
 I have been able to obtain no information of any Drawing 
 for this plate. 
 
 Mr. Buskin connects this scene with. Turner’s remini- 
 scences of liis childhood, in the passage which follows 
 (if. P. vol. v. p. 297) : — 
 
 “ I suppose the boy Turner to have regarded the religion of his city 
 also from an external intellectual standing point. What did he see in 
 Maiden Lane ? Let not the reader be offended with me ; I am willing 
 to let him describe, at his own pleasure, what Turner saw there ; but 
 to me it seems to have been this. A religion maintained occasionally, 
 even the whole length of the lane, at point of constable’s stall' ; but, 
 at other times, placed under the custody of the beadle, within certain 
 black and unstately iron railings of St. Paul’s, Covent Garden. Among 
 the wheelbarrows and over the vegetables, no perceptible dominance 
 of religion ; in the narrow, disquieted streets, none ; in the tongues, 
 deeds, daily ways of Maiden Lane, little. Some honesty, indeed, and 
 English industry, and kindness of heart, and general idea of justice ; 
 but faith, of any national kind shut up from one Sunday to the next, 
 not artistically beautiful even in those Sabbatical exhibitions ; its para- 
 phernalia being chiefly of high pews, heavy elocution, and cold 
 grimness cf behaviour. What chiaroscuro belongs to it — (dependent 
 mostly on candlelight) — we will, however, draw, considerately ; no good- 
 liness of escutcheon, nor other respectability being omitted, and the best 
 of their results confessed, a meek old woman and a child being let 
 into a pew, for whom the reading by candlelight will be beneficial . . . 
 The English Church may, perhaps, accept it as a matter of con- 
 gratulation, that this is the only instance in which Turner drew a 
 clergyman.” 
 
LTBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 141 
 
 No. 71. 
 
 CHRIST AND THE WOMAN OF SAMARIA. 
 
 Published January 1, 1819, by J. M. W. Turner , Queen 
 Ann Street West. Drawn and Etched by J. M. W. Turner 
 Esq. R.A. P.P. Engraved by S. TV. Reynolds. 
 
 The figure of Christ with uplifted left hand sitting by a well on the 
 right, at which is standing a woman with a pitcher ; trees overhead. 
 Beyond, two figures approaching from an archway. On the left, 
 buildings and towers. 
 
 The Etching. 
 
 First Published State. Before the mark in the margin. 
 
 Bare. 
 
 Second State. Two dots at the right lower corner in the 
 margin. 
 
 Third State. Two parallel nearly horizontal strokes at the 
 right lower corner in the margin. 
 
 The Drawing is in the National Gallery. 
 
 The fine drawing of the upper boughs of the tree on 
 the right, most noticeable in the Etching, are probably all 
 we shall find to interest us here. In the figures we see 
 Turner at great disadvantage. 
 
142 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 THE UNPUBLISHED PLATES. 
 
 Of the twenty-nine plates required to complete the original 
 scheme of Liber Studiorum, twenty had been begun and 
 carried to various stages of preparation, when in 1819, for 
 reasons already explained, 1 the Work was stopped; and 
 although some of these twenty were nearly if not quite 
 finished, none were ever published. Eight or nine sepia 
 Drawings also exist which have been always considered to 
 represent Turner’s preparations for the completion of the 
 hundred plates originally planned. 
 
 Of the twenty commenced copper-plates, eleven were 
 found at Turner’s death among his property in Queen Anne 
 Street, and were offered at tire Sale at Christie’s in 1873. 
 Tsine of them were sold, and two were bought in. Another 
 appeared at Lupton’s Sale at Christie’s in 1874. Most of 
 those sold have since been printed from, with varying 
 success. It is supposed that the eight missing coppers 
 were stolen from Turner at some time or other between 
 1819 and 1851, and sold for the value of the metal. 
 
 Original impressions (which are of course Engravers’ 
 Proofs) of all the Unpublished plates are rare. Many are 
 excessively rare ; indeed, of one no example is at present 
 known, although the copper was found commenced at 
 Turner’s death. The Etchings of the first eight subjects 
 are more often met with. 
 
 1 See Introduction, p. xxxii. 
 
LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 143 
 
 Of several of the plates the Engravers are known, in 
 several others the style leaves no doubt they were Turner’s 
 own work ; it is doubtful to whom we can attribute some 
 two or three. 
 
 The fame of Liber Studiorum would have been greatly 
 enhanced had these now lost plates taken their place in 
 it. Against one perhaps, but against one only, could the 
 charge of commonplaceness, too often, as we have seen, 
 true of the published plates, be brought. I venture to 
 say of some seven or eight, that colour apart, they are 
 unsurpassed by anything that Turner ever did, and I 
 believe they are unsurpassable by anything that any 
 Landscape painter will ever do. 
 
144 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 N.B . — It should be understood that none of the titles of 
 the Plates which follow , nor the names of their Etchers and 
 Engravers, appear on the Prints. 
 
 No. 72. 
 
 APULEIA IN SEARCH OF APULEIUS. 
 
 (Known as ‘ The Premium Landscape.’) 
 
 Etched by Turner. Engraved by Say. 
 
 A classical landscape with a broad river on the left, crossed in the 
 middle distance by a bridge of six arches, with a tower in the centre. 
 Trees, a temple with round columns, and other buildings on the right. 
 In the left foreground, a group of shepherdesses tending sheep, with 
 Apuleia unveiling herself to them. In the distance, hills and pastoral 
 country. 
 
 The Drawing is in the possession of Mr. Henry Vaughan. 
 
 The Etching. Not especially rare. 
 
 Engravers' Proofs exist in various collections. 
 
 The copper-plate, apparently finished, was sold at the Turner 
 Sale in 1873. Many impressions have since been printed 
 on a stout, smooth, English-made paper. A few were taken 
 on old French paper, like that used for the original Liber 
 plates. Though perhaps the most successful of the reprinted 
 plates, none of the modern impressions approach in richness 
 the original Proofs. 
 
LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 145 
 
 This plate is taken with scarcely any alteration from 
 the picture, which was exhibited by Turner at the British 
 Institution in 1814, 1 and is now in the National Gallery. 
 The whole thing appears to me to have been borrowed 
 from a sketch of Claude’s (No. 134) in the Liber Yeritatis. 
 The figures only are different. The National Gallery 
 Catalogue states (j Ed. 1878, p. 150) that the picture was 
 painted as a companion to the celebrated Claude in the 
 possession of the Earl of Egremont, and says of the 
 subject : — 
 
 “ Apuleius was a distinguished philosopher and advocate of the 
 second century of our era, and was the author of the celebrated 
 romance entitled The Metamorphosis, or the Golden Ass, in which he 
 represents himself as transformed into an ass. The incident, however, 
 represented in this picture, is not in the story of Apuleius. * * * * 
 The personage, ‘ Apuleia,’ and the incident represented, appear to be 
 equally the painter’s own invention. ‘ Palaestra in search of Lucius/ 
 or ‘ Fotis in search of Apuleius/ would be more in accordance with 
 the classic tales.” 
 
 1 I have been unable to obtain access to the records of the now defunct 
 British Institution, but I believe that it obtained the landscape premium 
 in 1814 ; hence its name of “ Premium Landscape.” 
 
 L 
 
146 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 No. 73. GLAUCUS AND SCYLLA. 
 
 Etched by Turner. Engraved by Say. 
 
 A small rocky bay, the sea on the left and a beach on the right. 
 Glancus as a Triton beckoning from the waves to Scylla, who is 
 running from him on the shore. Wooded rocks with an arched 
 opening in the middle, stretch from the right, into the sea. The 
 reflection of the setting sun seen on the waves to the left. Rocks 
 and headlands in the distance. 
 
 The Drawing is in tho possession of Mr. Henry Vaughan. 
 
 The Etching , is not especially rare. 
 
 Several Engraver 8 Proofs are in tho Print Room of the 
 British Museum ; others are in various private collections. 
 Tho nearly-completed copper plate was bought in at the 
 Turner Salo in 1873. 
 
 This is a beautiful plate. The sky is very brilliant, and 
 the sea a lovely example of Turner’s treatment of calm 
 water with small waves, across which the light of the 
 setting sun is falling. 
 
 Exception has been taken to this reflection of the 
 sunset, as not being in an absolutely vertical line from the 
 sun, but deflected slightly, yet impossibly, to the left. It 
 is strange that the engraver’s mistake, slight as it is, 
 should not have been noticed by Turner ; in the Drawing 
 the reflection is correctly though very faintly given. 
 
 The engraver (Say) has not done justice to the foliage. 
 This, in the Drawing has none of the stiffness which his 
 
 o 
 
 heavy line of mezzotint has given it in the Print. 
 
LIBER STUDIO RUM. 
 
 147 
 
 N o. 74. 
 
 SHEEP-WASHING , CASTLE. 
 
 (Also called “ Windsor Castle from Salt Hill.”) 
 
 Etchccl by Turner . Engraved by C. Turner. 
 
 Windsor Castle in the centre in the distance. In the foreground, 
 a pool in which men are washing sheep. On the left, a man looking 
 over a wall ; a boy and a dog beside him. Salt Hill rises above. 
 Trees on the right. 
 
 The Drawing is in the possession of Mr. Henry Vaughan. 
 
 The Etching , is not especially rare. 
 
 Engraver s Proofs are in various collections. Mr. C. S. Bale 
 possesses a very fine one, extensively touched by Turner, and 
 with the two slender leaning birch or acacia stems on the 
 right, drawn with the brush. On the margin he has written, 
 u Put in the tree (here is a tiny sketch of it) and I will etch 
 the lines afterwards.” The latest Proofs show these additions 
 both engraved and etched. 
 
 The still unfinished copper-plate was sold in 1873, and 
 many impressions have since been taken from it, but with 
 less success than in the case of Ho. 72. The same remarks 
 as to paper, &c., apply here. 
 
 Mr. Kuskin in the Elements of Drawing (p. 126) has 
 given a facsimile of the left half of the Etching of this 
 plate, and thus writes of it : — 
 
 “ Fig. 20 will give you a good idea of the simplest way in which 
 these and other such facts can be rapidly expressed ; if you copy it 
 carefully you will be surprised to find how the touches all group 
 together, in expressing the plumy top of the tree-branches, and the 
 springing of the bushes out of the bank, and the undulation of the 
 ground : note the careful drawing of the footsteps made by the 
 
 l 2 
 
148 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 climbers of the little mound on the left (it is meant, I believe, for Salt 
 Hill). It is facsimiled from an etching of Turner’s, and is as good an 
 example as you can have of the use of pure and firm lines. It will 
 also show you how the particular action in foliage, or anything else to 
 which you wish to direct attention, maybe intensified by the adjuncts. 
 The tall and upright trees are made to look more tall and upright 
 still, because their line is continued below by the figure of the farmer 
 with his stick ; and the rounded bushes on the bank are made to look 
 more rounded, because their line is continued in one broad sweep by 
 the black dog and the boy climbing the wall. These figures are placed 
 entirely with this object.” 
 
LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 149 
 
 No. 75. DUMBARTON ROCK. 
 
 Etched by Turner. Engraved by Lupton . 
 
 The Rock in the distance, rising abruptly out of a wide plain, with 
 hills on the right and beyond it. A river with ships, in mid-distance. 
 In the foreground, a road descending to the plain, with trees on the 
 right ; on the left a large boulder, and a stile by which a woman is 
 standing ; high trees and a bank on the extreme left. 
 
 The Drawing is in the possession of Mr. Frederick Locker. 
 
 The Etching , is not especially rare. 
 
 Engraver 1 s Proofs exist in various collections. Two fine 
 examples printed in black ink are in the collections of Mr. 
 J. E. Taylor and Mr. Gambler Parry ; another in the same 
 colour is in my own possession. 
 
 The nearly-finished copper-plate was sold among Mr. 
 Lupton’s effects at Christie’s, in 1874. About fifty im- 
 pressions taken from it on modern paper were subsequently 
 published by Mrs. Noseda of the Strand. They bear the 
 following title in Roman capitals ; “ Dumbarton, Drawn by 
 J. M. W. Turner R.A. Engraved by Thos. Lupton. Proof.” 
 
 Mr. Hamerton (who appears unaware that the plate had 
 been also mezzotinted) writes ( Etching and Etchers, p. 87) 
 of the Etching : — ■ 
 
 “ It is scarcely probable, considering the disposition of the lines, 
 that the effect of light and shade was intended to be a powerful one. 
 The artistic motive of the composition was space and beauty, rather 
 than force and contrast. The view is wide and fair, and the last 
 waves of the granite ocean which tosses its highest crests on Cruachan 
 and Ben Nevis, come undulating here in long slopes to the edge of the 
 lowland plain. Out of the Clyde the last expression of the exhausted 
 mountain energy rises far off — the fortress rock of Dumbarton. 
 Against this beautiful distance, Turner will bring no rudely contrasting 
 tree, but gives us the slender and delicate acacia, with all its pendent 
 
150 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 flowers. Leading thus from the faint lines of the distance to the 
 stronger work of the foreground, he has obtained by this transition a 
 natural passage to the massiveness of the great trees to the left. The 
 reader is especially entreated to allow himself to receive impartially 
 the full and sweet amenity of this composition, for there are Etchings 
 of Turner in which his many-sided mind sought qualities very dif- 
 ferent from amenity. When the student of etching comes across a 
 piece of work by Turner which seems to him brutal and coarse, 
 let him remember the distant hills and the acacia in this plate of 
 Dumbarton.’' 
 
 The line rendering of the smooth, glacier-worn boulder 
 by the roadside has been pointed out to me. I have 
 lately seen (in the collection of Mr. C. S. Bale) what was 
 apparently the first Engraver’s Proof, in which this stone 
 had been given as a mere ordinary mass of rock, but 
 Turner, with infinite care, had partly drawn, partly scraped 
 on it, all those carefully graduated lights which tell at 
 once its history and his insight. 
 
LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 151 
 
 No. 76. CROWHURST, SUSSEX. 
 
 Etched by Turner . Engraved by Turner ? 
 
 A sloping "bank in the left foreground, on which are fallen trees, and 
 labourers at work. On the edge of the slope, in the centre of the 
 plate, a row of tall, nearly leafless trees. A stream in the valley 
 below, and a village beyond with conspicuous hop-kilns. High chalk 
 downs on the right. A wide expanse of flat country in the distance. 
 The sky very dark, except on the horizon. 
 
 The Drawing is in the possession of Mr. Henry Vaughan. 
 
 The Etching , is somewhat rare. 
 
 i> 
 
 I only know of two Engraver s Proofs of the magnificent 
 Print. One is in the collection of Mr. J. E. Taylor, the other 
 in that of Mr. Gambier Parry. 
 
 Mr. Ruskin considers the Etching to be the third finest 
 of the Liber ( Elements of Drawing , p. 134). The view of 
 Crowhurst is an entirely different one from the steel-plate 
 which passes by that name in Cooke’s “ Views in Sussex 
 after Turner.” I have never been able to decide whether 
 or not the downs on the right are intended to be repre- 
 sented covered with snow. 
 
 It will be noticed that in the left-hand corner of the 
 Etching, 1 some touches indicating leafage are contrived to 
 give Turner’s initials. 
 
 1 This Etching and the next have been well photographed by Messrs. 
 Caldesi. The photographs of some of the other Unpublished Etchings arc 
 less satisfactory. 
 
152 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 No. 77. 
 
 TEMPLE OF JUPITER IN THE ISLAND 
 
 OF PEG IN A. 
 
 Etched ly Turner. Engraver uncertain. 
 
 On the right, the ruins of a temple. In the centre, a hank on 
 which is a clump of trees. In the foreground, a number of figures 
 in Oriental costume seated on the ground in a ring, with a woman in the 
 middle playing a tambourine and dancing. A high bank on the left 
 with trees. Hills and wooded country in the distance to the left. 
 
 The Drawing is in tho possession of Mr. W. Leech of 
 Manchester. 
 
 The Etching , is not especially rare. 
 
 A touched Engraver's Proof is in the collection of Mr. 
 Gambier Parry. A later Proof, showing the plate to have 
 been nearly completed, is in the collection of Mr. Henry 
 Vaughan. I believe one or two other examples exist. 
 
 Several pictures and drawings of the same subject were 
 made by Turner ; two of them being engraved as steel- 
 plates. All are believed to have been taken from sketches 
 by Gaily Knight, Turner never having visited the Island 
 of TEgina. 
 
 The forms and the grouping of the trees here are very 
 fine and characteristic, though far more Northern than 
 Oriental in their character. The Etching is extremely 
 effective. 1 incline to think the mezzotinting was done 
 by Turner. The copper unfortunately has disappeared. 
 
LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 153 
 
 No. 78. 
 
 SWISS BRIDGE , MONT ST. GOTHARD. 
 
 (Also called “Via Mala.”) 
 
 Etched and Engraved by Turner . 
 
 In the centre, a slender bridge of a single arch crossing a deep 
 chasm, with high mountains on the right and beyond, shrouded in 
 mists. From low down on the right a walled road, along which figures 
 are passing, winds upwards to the bridge, passing under an archway 
 in the embankment of the bridge. On the left, a wall of rock shuts 
 in the chasm. 
 
 The Drawing is in the possession of Mr. C. S. Bale. 
 
 The Etching, is somewhat rare. 
 
 I only know of two Engraver’s Proofs of this grand plate. 
 One has lately been exhibited by Mr. Buskin, the other is in 
 the collection of Mr. Gambier Parry. 
 
 The Etching, Mr. Buskin ranks as the second finest in 
 the Liber. Of the Print he says ( Elements of Drawing , 
 p. 134) 
 
 “ Turner seems to have been so fond of these plates (Via 
 Mala and Crowhurst), that he kept retouching and finishing 
 them, and never made up his mind to let them go. The Via 
 Mala is certainly, in the state in which he left it, the finest of 
 the whole series.” 
 
 I am indebted to a friend for pointing out how 
 Turner here has called attention to the depth of the pre- 
 cipice, by introducing the figure on the right, leaning 
 over and looking down. This action is characteristically 
 
154 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 repeated by another figure looking over the bridge. It 
 will be noticed too that here, as in most of his wildest 
 scenes, the human element is not wanting. A stream 
 of active, daily human and animal life passes along 
 beneath the rugged mountain walls, and above the yawn- 
 ing chasm, bringing into stronger relief the sternness and 
 solitariness of Nature. 
 
 For Mr. Euskin’s remarks on Turner’s attachment to 
 the St. Gothard Pass, see p. 25, note , and many passages 
 
 in Modern Painters. 
 
LIBER STUDIORUM . 
 
 155 
 
 No. 79. PLOUGHING , .ETOiV: 
 
 Etched by Turner and again by lupton. Engraved twice 
 
 by Lujoton. 
 
 Eton College Chapel in middle distance. In front, a man ploughing 
 with a team of horses and a boy driving them. In the left foreground, 
 a girl seated on the ground with a child in her arms ; a basket and 
 a bottle behind her. On the right, a pool with reeds, &c. ; a mile- 
 stone beside it on which are letters. Houses and trees in the distance 
 on the right. The sun setting amidst light clouds. 
 
 An Etching, coloured in sepia as the guide for the engraver, 
 is in the possession of Mr. Henry Vaughan. 
 
 This plate underwent many vicissitudes, and it has not 
 been easy to decipher 1 its history. A careful study of all 
 the impressions I have been able to compare, leads me to 
 describe them as follows 
 
 A. The First Etching , by Turner : 
 
 Eight windows in the side of the chapel. The milestone 
 on the right has J. M. W. T. in irregular Homan capitals 
 reaching across the top, with a cross in a circle below- 
 The boy’s whip in his right hand. The foreground weeds 
 occupy from end to end 7J inches. 
 
 Mr. Henry Vaughan’s coloured Etching named above is 
 in this State. 2 
 
 This copper was then beaten up in the centre for altera- 
 tions. In the Print Hoorn of the British Museum is an 
 impression in the next State : — 
 
 A 1 . The First Etching , Second State : 
 
 The centre blank ; the figure of the boy and the part of 
 the chapel above him having been obliterated. 
 
 1 Mr. Henry Vaughan possesses several letters on the subject from the 
 late Mr. Lupton, the engraver; but they were written in his old age, about 
 fifty years after his connection with the work, and they fail to elucidate 
 the matter. 
 
 2 This has been photographed by Messrs. Hogarth of Mount Street. 
 
156 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 Alterations were attempted in the space which had been 
 beaten up, but the copper was too much injured to be 
 proceeded with and was thrown aside. Impressions were 
 taken from it by Mr. Seymour Haden before the Turner 
 Sale in 1873, but it was found to be so much defaced 
 that it was not considered worth putting up. 
 
 An Etching was then made on a second copper, but by 
 whom, cannot be definitely said. It lacks some of the 
 force of the First Etching (A), but it appears to me clearly 
 by a stronger hand than the Third Etching (C), which 
 was undoubtedly Lupton’s. I incline to think it was by 
 Turner. It may be known as follows : — 
 
 B. The Second Etching: Eight windows in the side of the 
 chapel ; 1 the two on the left nearly hidden by trees ; the 
 tracery carefully drawn. Tho boy’s whip in his left 
 hand, but not higher than his hand. The milestone with 
 J. M. W. T. in italic writing ; no cross or circle below. 
 The foreground weeds occupy from end to end 61 inches. 
 Tho biting of t lie whole less forcible. 
 
 Mr. Vaughan possesses two impressions, bought from 
 Lupton about 1864. Others appeared at tho Turner Sale. 
 
 This copper was then mezzotinted by Lupton, from 
 Mr. Vaughan’s coloured Etching (A) giving: — 
 
 B 1. Engraver s Proof . The plate apparently finished. Eight 
 windows in tho chapel as in tho Etching B. The cross on 
 tho milostono added in mezzotint. The girl without a 
 bonnet, and her head turned towards the horses. No toy 
 in tho child’s hand. 
 
 Mr. Vaughan has an impression in this State. 
 
 Turner proceeded to make further changes. Mr. II. 
 Hawkins possesses a later impression of B 1, on which 
 Turner has drawn in thick body or oil colour, the altera- 
 tions described in B *2. These alterations were carried out 
 in mezzotint by Lupton, giving : — 
 
 1 There are eight windows in the side of Eton College Chapel. 
 
LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 157 
 
 B 2. Latest Engraver's Proof. The girl with a bonnet on, and 
 her head turned towards the ploughman. A paper toy 
 added in the child’s hand. In all other respects little 
 different from B 1. 
 
 Mr. Yaughan possesses an impression in this State pur- 
 chased from Lupton about 1864. 
 
 This second plate would appear to have been now 
 regarded as finished, and it also was found among Turner’s 
 effects at his death. Before the Sale impressions were 
 taken from it, which exactly correspond with Mr. Yaughan’s 
 B 2, but of course showing great depreciation in the copper 
 during the fifty years it had lain by. It was put up at 
 the Sale, but was bought in. 
 
 After Turner’s death Lupton (as stated in his letters) 
 etched and engraved a third copper. From the look of the 
 Etchings, one would think he must have employed some 
 photographic or other mechanical process, to transfer the 
 greater portion of the Etching B to this third copper. 
 The foreground weeds are an exact facsimile, line for line, 
 of those in B, but with an utterly lifeless look. There 
 are, however, other differences by which both the Etching 
 and Engraving can at once be recognised. 
 
 C. The Third Etching , Lupton' s. The chapel much higher in 
 the plate ; six windows only in the side , all distinctly seen ; 
 the tracery very carelessly drawn. The boy’s whip in his 
 left hand and reaching much above his head. 
 
 C 1 . Lupton' s Mezzotint. This is simply the foregoing Etching 
 completed. It may be at once known from impressions of 
 B 1 or B 2 by the six windows, the heads of all of which 
 are distinctly seen, no trees intervening to hide them as in 
 B 1 and B 2. 
 
 I have m6t with several impressions, all printed on stout 
 smooth modern paper. 
 
158 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 No. 80 . PAN AND SYRINX . 
 
 A reedy pool in the centre foreground, surrounded by trees, beside 
 it Syrinx is standing, and Pan running towards her from the right. 
 A large willow trunk stretches across beyond the pool ; rays of light 
 break from the left through the trees. 
 
 The Drawing is in the Print Room of the British Museum. 
 
 Three Etchings only of this plate are known. One is in 
 the collection of Mr. J. E. Taylor, and one in that of Mr. 
 Henry Vaughan. I do not know where the third is. No 
 mezzotinting is believed ever to have been added, and it is 
 doubtful if the Etching was by Turner’s hand. The copper- 
 plate did not appear at the Turner Sale. 
 
 The Drawing is an extremoly lino one, and has been well 
 photographed by Messrs. Caldesi & Co. 
 
LIBER STUDIOR UM. 
 
 159 
 
 No. 81 . STONEHENGE AT DAYBREAK. 
 
 Engraved in pure mezzotint by Turner . 
 
 The whole scene very dark, except on the horizon. Stonehenge on 
 the right, relieved against the light which is just breaking behind. On 
 the left, a laden stage-coach, indistinct. Beyond, to the left, a woman 
 in a light cloak walking, and several sheep, also indistinct. 
 
 The Drawing is in the possession of Mr. J. E. Taylor. 
 
 I only know of one original Proof of this splendid plate ; 
 this is in the same rich collection as the Drawing. 
 
 The unfinished copper-plate was sold in 1873, and many 
 impressions were subsequently taken from it, some of a fair 
 character. It was printed and published in the same way 
 and through the same channels as Nos. 72, 74, and 83. 
 
 It has been suggested, and it seems to me very probable, 
 that Turner here, as elsewhere, has intentionally thrown 
 into strong contrast the past and the present. The well- 
 appointed stage-coach, in his day perhaps the most typical 
 emblem of a century which already prided itself on its 
 progress, looms in front, coming rapidly towards us out of 
 the darkness, while in the east, thrown into strong relief 
 against the first gleams of the coming dawn, are seen the 
 weird forms of one of the oldest relics of human handiwork 
 which England possesses. Are the sheep, quietly feeding 
 by the roadside, intended to suggest, in the peaceful, un- 
 changing character of pastoral avocations, necessary then 
 as now, a connection between the men of that distant 
 past and the dwellers on Salisbury Plain of Turner’s day ? 
 
 Stonehenge is also one of the subjects of the ‘England 
 and Wales,’ (No. 7,) but the treatment there is entirely 
 different. 
 
160 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 No. 82 . THE FELUCCA. 
 
 Engraved (apparently in pure mezzotint ) by Turner. 
 
 The sea in front ; a half-clecked boat with sharp prow containing 
 two men, on the left ; the light sails of a larger boat seen just over it. 
 In mid-distance, a Felucca sailing towards the right. In the dis- 
 tance, a rocky island with a high tower on it. Beyond, a line of 
 coast, with the white buildings of a town on the extreme right. A 
 thunder-storm overhead. 
 
 I have boon ablo to obtain no information of any Drawing 
 for this plate. 
 
 Two original Engraver s Proofs aro in the collection of 
 Mr. J. E. Taylor. The unfinished copper-plate was sold in 
 1873, but the impressions subsequently taken from it wore 
 not very satisfactory. 
 
LIBER STUDIO RUM. 
 
 161 
 
 No. 83. THE STORK AND AQUEDUCT. 
 
 (Sometimes called ‘ The Heron’s Pool.’) 
 
 Etched by Turner. Said to have been Engraved by Dawe. 
 
 In mid-distance, high up, an aqueduct or viaduct, of which three 
 arches only are seen, crossing a rocky glen ; high wooded hills on either 
 side. In front, a large mass of smooth rock, at the foot of which a 
 stream falls from the right between rocks, to a pool on the left, on the 
 edge of which is a stork or heron. Trees just above, hide the left part 
 of the viaduct from view. A small waterfall on the extreme left. 
 
 I have been able to obtain no information of any Drawing 
 for this plate. 
 
 The Etching , is very rare. 
 
 Three original Engravers Proofs ; in the collections of Mr. 
 J. E. Taylor, Mr. Gambier Parry, and Mr. C. S. Bale. 
 
 The copper-plate was sold in 1873, and as in the case of 
 Nos. 72, 74 and 81, many impressions have since been taken 
 from it ; some are very fairly good, though of course not to 
 be compared with those named above. 
 
 This grand plate has been thought to he a view of 
 Kuabon Viaduct, near Llangollen, In composition, tree 
 and rock drawing, and disposition of light and shade, it 
 may rank with the finest works of Turner. The Etching, 
 Mr. Buskin considers the finest in the whole work. 
 ( Elements of Drawing , p. 134.) 
 
 M 
 
162 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 No. 84. THE LOST SAILOR. 
 
 (Also called ‘ Storm oyer the Lizard.’) 
 
 Engraved , apparently in pure mezzotint , by Turner. 
 
 High cliffs on the left, against which huge waves are breaking. 
 Below the cliffs, in the hollow of the sea, a man lashed to a block, 
 tossing head downwards. In the left distance, a tower just visible on 
 the cliffs. 
 
 1 have been able to obtain no information of any Drawing 
 for this plate. 
 
 Three Engravers Proofs ; in the collections of Mr. Ruskin, 
 Mr. Gambier Parry, and Mr. Francis Stevenson. 
 
 Mr. Ruskin thus alludes to this most impressive plate 
 (M. P. v. ]>. 340) : 
 
 “ There is no form of violent death which he has not painted. Pre- 
 eminent in many things, ho is pre-eminent also bitterly in this. Durer 
 and Holbein drew the skeleton in its questioning ; but Turner, like 
 Salvator, as under some strange fascination or captivity, drew it at its 
 work. Flood and tire, and battle and wreck, and pestilence and soli- 
 tary death more fearful still. The noblest of all the plates of Liber 
 Studioium, except the Via Mala, is one engraved with his own hand, 
 of a single sailor, yet living, dashed in the night against a granite 
 coast — his body and outstretched hands just seen in the trough of 
 a mountain wave, between it and the overhanging wall of rock, 
 hollow, polished and pale, with dreadful cloud and grasping foam. 
 
 Mr. Stevenson writes me that his impression has a gloom 
 even more awful than in the one Mr. Ruskin has lately 
 lent for exhibition (with his Turner Drawings). 
 
LIBER STUDIO RUM. 
 
 163 
 
 No. 85. MOONLIGHT AT SEA , OFF THE 
 ISLE OF WIGHT . 
 
 (Sometimes called ‘ Moonlight off the Needles.') 
 
 Engraved in pure mezzotint by Turner. 
 
 A full moon overhead, its light breaking through dark clouds on a 
 wide expanse of sea. In front, a boat in which are several men and 
 a light, tossing on the waves. Another boat in deep shadow to the 
 left, the masts visible against the horizon. On the right, a row of 
 rocks, one with an arched opening, standing up out of the sea. 
 
 N.B. — This description is taken partly from the unfinished Plate, 
 partly from the Drawing. The latter was reversed in engraving. 
 
 The Drawing is in the possession of Mr. Henry Vaughan. 
 
 Mr. Henry Vaughan possesses the only two original Proofs 
 which I have met with. They have some puzzling differences. 
 Two copper-plates were commenced by Turner, from both of 
 which proofs were taken by Mr. Seymour Haden before the 
 Sale in 1873. One, which had been etched and strongly 
 bitten over the mezzotint, had also undergone some mysterious 
 process which had evidently entirely ruined it, and it was 
 not considered worth offering for sale. The other was sold 
 and, though very incomplete, some fine impressions were taken 
 from it. These correspond exactly with one of Mr. Vaughan’s 
 original Proofs. Had the plate been finished, I believe it 
 would have been equal to anything that ever proceeded from 
 Turner’s hand. It is to be hoped that its present owner 
 will allow more impressions to be taken from the copper, as 
 they serve at all events to give some idea of Turner’s splendid 
 wave drawing. 
 
 The Drawing is admirably reproduced in a photograph 
 published by Messrs. Hogarth. 
 
164 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 No. 86. BARGES ON THE MEDWAY AT 
 CHATHAM. MOONLIGHT. 
 
 Engraved in pure mezzotint by Turner. 
 
 A broad reach of river, down the centre of which the full moon is 
 reflected. On the left, a line of sailing barges in perspective. On 
 the horizon, heights, indistinctly visible, stretch across the picture. 
 A windmill high up, stands out against the sky ; behind it, a tall 
 chimney with smoke. On the right, below some buildings, a large 
 three-masted hulk, very indistinctly seen. 
 
 The Drawing is in the possession of Mr. Henry Vaughan. 
 
 Engravers' Proofs are in the collections of Mr. Henry 
 Vaughan, Mr. J. E. Taylor, and Mr. C. S. Bale. 
 
 This plate is as superb an example of Turner’s ren- 
 dering of moonlight on still water, as the one preceding 
 is of moonlight on a tumbling sea. 
 
 Turner’s moonlights strike me as marvellously strong 
 and yet perfectly delicate. They wholly lack the staginess 
 and weakness one usually sees in moonlight pictures. This 
 Print is a grand and most poetical composition. The dis- 
 appearance of the copper-plate is deeply to be regretted. 
 
LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 165 
 
 No. 87. KINGSTON BANK 
 
 Commenced , apparently in pure mezzotint, by Turner. 
 
 A broad reach of river in front. On the left bank, a cornfield with 
 harvesters standing and sitting, and others beyond loading a cart. 
 Below them several women, and a man washing, on the edge of the 
 river. Boats with sails on the right. Beyond, a waggon and horses. 
 Fields and flat country in the distance. 
 
 N. B. — This description is taken mainly from the Drawing. 
 
 The Drawing is in the possession of Mr. Henry Vaughan. 
 It is taken with scarcely any alteration from the picture, 
 which was painted about 1813 and is now in the National 
 Gallery. 
 
 No original Proof is known of this Plate, but the copper ^ 
 plate, commenced apparently by Turner in mezzotint, appeared 
 at the Sale in 1873, and w^as bought by Messrs. Colnaghi and 
 Co. of Pall Mall. A few impressions were printed from it, 
 but were found to be valueless. 
 
ICG 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 No. 88. THE DELUGE. 
 
 Engraved in pure mezzotint hg Turner. 
 
 In front, a broad volume of water sweeping from the right, across a 
 low bank on which are a crowd of figures ; others are being carried 
 
 away by the waters ; a serpent on the lower part of the bank. On 
 
 the left, a high bank with trees, swept by the storm which is breaking 
 over the whole scene. Dark clouds all over the sky, with a gleam of 
 
 light in the distance on the left. A white bird in front to the left 
 
 over the water. 
 
 'The Drawing (very slight) is in the possession of Mr. 
 Henry Vaughan. 
 
 An original touched Engraver's Proof is in the collection 
 of Mr. Gambier Parry. I know of no other. The copper- 
 plate was bought by Messrs. Colnaghi at the Sale in 1873, 
 and impressions from it, some of fair character, were after- 
 wards published by them. 
 
 Tire terrific forces of wind and water are grandly 
 rendered in this plate. Observe how the bird on the left 
 is caught by the storm, and hurled backwards, despite its 
 strong, outspread wings. The stout trees above are bent 
 and broken with the gale. The “ fountains of the great 
 deep ” are indeed “ broken up,” and the “ windows of 
 heaven opened.’ 
 
LIBER STUDIO RUM. 
 
 167 
 
 No. 89 . 
 
 FLOUNDER FISHING , BATTERSEA. 
 
 Etched ancl Engraved, probably by Turner. 
 
 A wide reach of the Thames, with Old Battersea Bridge in the 
 distance. Several sailing and rowing boats, the nearest with two 
 men and a basket of fish. A round tower or gatehouse at the right 
 end of the bridge, and boats with white sails below it. 
 
 I have been able to obtain no information of any sepia 
 Drawing for this plate. I think it probable it was etched 
 direct (possibly in soft ground, like the Calm) from the 
 coloured Drawing at Farnley, -which, as far as can be judged, 
 it would have exactly resembled. 
 
 An original Engraver's Proof, with the etched lines slightly 
 bitten-in, is in the collection of Mr. Henry Vaughan. I 
 know of no other. The nearly finished copper-plate was 
 sold in 1873, but the impressions taken from it were not 
 satisfactory. They show a deeper biting-in of the Etching 
 than in Mr. Vaughan’s Proof. 
 
168 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 No. 90. NARCISSUS AND ECHO. 
 
 Etched in soft ground by Turner. 
 
 A pool in the left foreground, on the further shore of which Narcissus 
 is kneeling, looking at his reflected image. Nymphs hiding behind 
 rocks and trees watching him. On the left, low hills and woods. On 
 the right, a path below high trees. Beyond, a town on a hill above 
 the distant sea. 
 
 No Drawing is known for this plate. The picture from 
 which it is taken was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 
 180 1, and is now at Potworth. On the back of one of Mr. 
 Taylor’s impressions of the Etching is written — 
 
 “ This Etching, done by Turner himself, was by him given 
 to me at Pet worth. It is from his picture in the Gallery 
 there. (Signed) Klizth. Phillips.” 
 
 It is evident that in this case (and it is probablo that in 
 tho last and in some other cases where no Drawings are 
 known) Turner etched direct from pictures or drawings 
 previously painted, Liber plates which ho intended to engrave 
 himself. 
 
 Three impressions only of the Etching aro known. Two 
 aro in tho collection of Mr. J. E. Taylor, and one in that of 
 Mr. Henry Vaughan. The plate is not known ever to have 
 been mezzotinted. 
 
 Mr. Ruskin (M. P. vol. v. p. d04) says that the picture 
 was Turner's first classical subject. 
 
LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 169 
 
 No. 91. SAND BANK WITH GIPSIES . 
 
 Etched in soft ground by Turner . 
 
 In the foreground, a lane between a high sandy bank on the right, 
 and trees on the left. In mid-distance it dips, and is hidden by 
 trees, below which, on the left, are gipsies with a fire. Cows standing 
 on the top of the bank on the right, and a team of oxen ploughing 
 beyond. 
 
 The Drawing is in the possession of Mr. Henry Yaughan. 
 The picture from which it is taken was painted in 1809, and 
 is now in the National Gallery. 
 
 Three impressions only of the Etching are known. Two 
 are in the collection of Mr. J. E. Taylor, and one in that of 
 Mr. Henry Yaughan. The plate is not known ever to have 
 been mezzotinted. 
 
 This subject has always seemed to me to show a study 
 of Gainsborough. 
 
170 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 [The eight Drawings which follow, never having been 
 Engraved or Etched, cannot definitely he said to belong to 
 Liber Studiorurn. They have however always been considered 
 to re/present Turner s preparations for the completion of the 
 work ; they are of the same size as the Liber Drawings , and 
 they are in sepia, a vehicle rarely nsed by Turner elsewhere. 
 They arc 'nearly all of the highest character, though generally 
 somewhat slightly executed. Photographs of most of them 
 have been taken by Messrs. Ilogarth of Mount Street, and 
 Messrs. Caldesi of Pall Mall.] 
 
 No. 02. 
 
 VIEW OF A RIVER FROM A TERRACE.— 
 
 MAC OX.? 
 
 In front, a terrace ; a wooded bank on the left, and balustrades and 
 arches on the right, with trees above. From the terrace a view of a 
 broad river and wooded country. A bridge of five arches crosses the 
 river in middle distance. Hills beyond. 
 
 The Drawing is in the possession of Mr. Henry Vaughan, 
 ft is not known to have been ever etch»»d or engraved. 
 
LIBER STUDIO RUM. 
 
 171 
 
 No. 93. 
 
 FALLS OF THE RHINE, 
 SCIIAFFHA USEN. 
 
 The river flows from the left between hills ; the falls to the right. 
 On the further side, the town on the steep slopes of the hill ; a round 
 tower prominent on the left. On the near side, houses on the slope 
 above the falls ; trees below. In the left foreground, low down, the 
 entrance of a tunnel. 
 
 The magnificent Drawing is in the possession of Mr. Henry 
 Vaughan. It is not known ever to have been etched or 
 engraved. 
 
172 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 No. 94. VIEW OF A LAKE. 
 
 (Sometimes called ‘ Derwent water.’) 
 
 A lake in the centre, enclosed by hills. A road in the foreground 
 descending to the margin of the lake between rocks and trees. On 
 the left, high trees on a bank throwing a deep shadow over a pathway 
 below. 
 
 The Drawing is in the jxosaession of Mr. Henry Vaughan. 
 It is not known over to have been etched or engraved. 
 
LIBER STTJDIORUM. 
 
 173 
 
 No. 95. SION HOUSE, TWICKENHAM . 
 
 A park in the foreground, across which in the distance is seen a 
 white castellated house among trees. On the right, a pond, by the 
 side of which are several figures ; high trees above it on the extreme 
 right. 
 
 The Drawing is in the Print Doom of the British Museum. 
 It is not known ever to have been etched or engraved. 
 
174 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 No. 96. HUNTSMEN IN A WOOD . 
 
 An open space in a wood, through which a stream flows from the 
 left between trees. In the right foreground, a bridge, over which 
 a man with a gun, followed by several dogs, is crossing towards a path 
 on the right. Across the stream, huntsmen on the edge of the wood, 
 above a lake. On the farther side of the lake, a hill with a church on 
 the top. 
 
 This magnificent Drawing is in the Print Doom of the 
 British Museum. It is not known ever to have been etched 
 or engraved. 
 
 O 
 
LIBER STUDIO RUM. 
 
 175 
 
 No. 97. 
 
 MOONLIGHT ON A RIVER.— LUCERNE? 
 
 A broad river with a town on the high left bank. A wooden bridge 
 in mid-distance, with a high tower at its left end dark against the sky. 
 Houses on the low right bank. Hills beyond the bridge. A line of 
 boats and figures roughly indicated on the extreme right, close to the 
 spectator. 
 
 The Drawing is in the possession of Mr. Henry Vaughan. 
 It is not known ever to have been etched or engraved. 
 
176 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 No. 98. 
 
 SHIPPING AT THE ENTRANCE OF THE 
 
 MEDWAY . 
 
 (Also known as ‘ Shits in a Breeze.’) 
 
 A wide expanse of sea with a very faint distant white line of coast 
 on the right. Three large ships beating up with reefed topsails. Two 
 fishing- boats in front. 
 
 The Drawing is in the possession of Mr. I Tenry Vaughan. 
 It is not known ever to have been etched or engraved. 
 
LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 177 
 
 No. 99. FLEET OF MEN OF WAR . 
 
 This Drawing is believed to be in the possession of Lady 
 Ashburton. I am unable to append any description of it. 
 
 N 
 
178 
 
 CATALOGUE OF LIFER STUDIORUM. 
 
 No. 100. A CLASSICAL LANDSCAPE . 
 
 Among the Liber Studiomm Drawings in the National 
 Gallery is one which has not been engraved. In the 
 Catalogue it passes simply under the name of a ‘ Pastoral’ 
 It is a Claude-like subject, much resembling Apuleia in 
 search of Apuleivs (No. 72), and may be described as 
 follows : — 
 
 In the foreground, towards the right, figures of two women reclining 
 under a cluiup of trees. Beyond them, a smooth river crossed by a 
 bridge ot live arches. On the left, a ruined temple with columns, and 
 other buildings. In the extreme distanco a hill rises precipitately 
 from the plain. 
 
 END OF THE CATALOGUE. 
 
 [Eleven snail/ irnpuhl is/a el plates, enyroverl in pure mezzo- 
 tint by Turner , are sometimes roller/ the 'Sequel to Liber 
 Stiuhom m ; ’ hut / l now of no reason whiter*' r for connecting 
 them with the work . J 
 
 | It may bo worth while to mention here to students of the 
 Liber, that the Print Boom of the British Museum possesses 
 a tine set of the work, purchased from the late Mr. Pye, the 
 engraver (see page 181). There is also a complete set of 
 4 First States ’ in the Art Library of the South Kensington 
 Museum.] 
 
APPENDICES. 
 
APPENDIX A. 
 
 Letters from Turner to F. C. Lewis in 1807, and from 
 F. C. Lewis to John Pye in 1850 and 1852. 
 
 The late John Pye, the well-known engraver, was an 
 intimate friend and a great admirer of Turner. Though he 
 was never employed on Liber Studiorum, he was greatly 
 interested in the work, and he acquired, during many years, 
 an extensive and valuable collection of impressions. This 
 collection was fortunately secured for the Print Eoom of 
 the British Museum in 1869, 1 after having been offered 
 to and declined by the Council of the Royal Academy. It 
 comprises upwards of a hundred and fifty impressions, a 
 good number of which are Engravers Proofs, and was 
 bought for the very moderate sum of five hundred pounds. 
 With his collection, Pye presented to the Print Room the 
 following interesting letters from Turner to F. C. Lewis, 
 the first engraver of Liber, and from F. C. Lewis to Pye, 
 as well as the Memorandum drawn up by himself, which 
 will be found in Appendix B. 
 
 1 Mr. G. W. Reid, the esteemed Keeper of the Prints, to whose exertions 
 the purchase is due, tells me that he was warmly supported by the present 
 Prime Minister, then Mr. Disraeli, who was then as now one of the 
 Trustees, and who greatly interested himself in the Work. 
 
182 
 
 CATALOGUE OF LIBER STUDIORUM . 
 
 Letter No. 1. From Turner to Lewis } 
 
 “ Mr. Lewis, 
 
 “ I could wish you of course to get forward with the 
 Etched plate 1 2 as soon as possible, only send me 12 etchings 
 before you aquatint it. 1 have likewise put another 
 drawing with the plate, it* you can get on with it without 
 an Etching do so and 1 will etch it afterward if you 
 cannot send me another prepared plate when you send 
 me the 12 Etchings and the Drawing back and then I 
 will get it etched and send it to Salisbury St. 3 Send to 
 me at West End Upper Mall Hammersmith, and if by 
 the boat from Hungerford there is more chance of care 
 being taken of the Etched plate. 
 
 " J. M. W. Turner.” 
 
 (date omitted ) 
 
 1 The words in italics are underlined by Turner. I have not interfered 
 
 with the punctuation of the letters. 
 
 3 The Bridge and Goats (afterwards No. 43). 
 
 3 Lewis's address. 
 
APPENDIX A. 
 
 183 
 
 Letter No. 2. 1 From the same to the same. 
 
 “ Sir, 
 
 “ I have sent you an Etched outline tinted as you 
 desired— but (if ?) you cannot proceed without my Etching 
 being exactly similar to the Drawing if is of little use in 
 my etching them first — for cannot follow line by line with 
 the Drawing — therefore I wish you to etch the one I now 
 send, 2 and when you send it home send an etching ground 
 over yours with a proof print — then what Etching is 
 wanted I can add. I think this will be best way for to 
 touch up an Etching is full as much trouble as to me as 
 making the Drawing. So pray get this done immediately. 
 
 (date omitted) Yours &c,” 
 
 “ The new one is a view of Chepstow, therefore it must 
 not be reversed, but made like the Drawing.” 
 
 1 The original of this Letter is not with the others. I have taken it 
 from what appears a copy by Pye of the original, in accordance with the 
 instructions of Lewis in Letter No. 5 hereafter. 
 
 2 Chepstow Castle (No. 48). 
 
184 
 
 CATALOGUE OF LI BEli STUDIORUM. 
 
 Letter No. 3. From the same to the same . 
 
 “ SlR, 
 
 “ I received the Proof and Drawing, 1 the Proof I 
 like very well but do not think the grain 2 is as line as 
 those you showed me for Mr. Chamberlain — the effect of 
 the Drawing is well preserved, but as you wish to raise the 
 Price to eight guineas 1 must decline having the other 
 Drawing 3 engraved — therefore send it when you send the 
 plate, when they have arrived safe, the live guineas shall 
 be left in Salisbury St. where you’ll be so good as to leave 
 a receipt for the same. 
 
 “ Yours, 
 
 “J. M. W. Turner” 
 
 “ 14 Dec. 1307, 
 
 Hammersmith." 
 
 The liridfj'- unit Ooots (No. 43). * Of the aquatint. 
 
 3 ChrfHtoic CaAlt (No. 48). 
 
 i 
 
APPENDIX A. 
 
 185 
 
 Letter- No. 4. From F. C. Lewis to John Pye. 
 
 “ My dear Sir, 
 
 “ I have sent you one letter from Mr. Turner to me. 
 As far as I can recollect I always considered that my plate 1 
 was the first that was engraved for Mr. Turner’s beautiful 
 work of Liber Studiorum. 
 
 “ I ought not to have considered about the price of the 
 plates any object compared to the fame for such fine 
 works, but when you see the copies of two other letters 2 
 you will see I felt there would be some very troublesome 
 matters respecting Mr. Turner’s etching on my plate 
 afterwards, and I feared damage of first biting if Etched 
 afterwards, which would cause endless trouble, and at 
 that time I was busied in engraving Facsimiles of the fine 
 works of Claude Lorraine, Eaffaele and Michael Angelo, 
 and other masters of the Eoyal Collection — but had Mr. 
 Turner etched them for me I certainly would not have 
 hesitated and would have gladly done them for the low 
 sum that he offered when he first came to me about the 
 work. 
 
 " I am 
 
 “ Oct. 3, 1850. 
 
 53 Charlotte St., 
 Portland Place.” 
 
 “ Very faithfully yours, 
 
 “F. C. Lewis.” 
 
 1 Bridge, and Goats (ISTo. 43). 
 
 2 Letters 1 and 2, just given. 
 
18G 
 
 CATALOGUE OF LIBER STUDIO RUM. 
 
 Letter No. 5. From the name to the same. 
 
 “ My dear Sir, 
 
 “ In addition to my last note to you I think I 
 omitted to tell you that the reason I declined engraving 
 Mr. Turner’s Liber Studiorum work was on account of 
 my great engagement with Mr. Chamberlain, for whom 
 I engraved the collection of Claude Drawings from the 
 Royal Collection. 
 
 “ 1 only engraved one plate for Mr. Turner, which was 
 etched by himself, and he requested me to go on and sent 
 me two other Drawings ami said 1 must etch them myself. 
 1 replied that the charge would be eight guis. — but he said 
 no I will give no more and (here illegible) .... the 
 charge for those plates should be fifteen guis. 
 
 44 I was paid for the Claudes fifteen 20 — 110 — 10 guis. 
 according to the size of the plates. I will see if I have 
 any of the letters of Mr. Turner that will throw any light 
 on that beautiful work of Liber Studiorum. 
 
 “ Very faithfully yours, 
 
 44 F. C. Lewis.” 
 
 “ Sept. 20, 1S52. 
 
 44 To J. C. Ryk, Esq.” 
 
 (l\S.) 44 1 have found another letter 1 which you can 
 
 copy and return to me. I also send you the one you have 
 had a copy of which you can look over and return to me.” 
 
 1 This I take to be hotter No. 2. 
 
APPENDIX B, 
 
 187 
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 Memorandum drawn up by the late John Pye the 
 Engraver, and signed by the Printer and certain 
 of the Engravers of Liber Studiorum. The 
 Original in the Print Boom of the British 
 Museum. 
 
 “ The various subjects designed by J. M. W. Turner for 
 the Liber Studiorum having been engraved between the 
 years 1806 and 1820 on Plates of Copper, before Steel 
 Plates came into general use among Engravers in England 
 — It is deemed expedient to place on the opposite side of 
 this a declaration of the incapacity of Mezzotinto Engrav- 
 ing on Copper Plates to produce more than from 20 to 30 
 good impressions. Signed by C. Turner and T. Lupton, 
 two of the engravers of plates for the Liber, and by Mr. 
 Lahee, who printed the Liber plates during many years. 
 
 (Signed) “ John Pye.” 
 
 March, 1852. 
 
188 
 
 CATALOGUE OF LI BEE STUDIORUM. 
 
 Declaration referred to on the other side. 
 
 “ Having engraved 25 Plates of Liber Studiorum I beg 
 to say that not more than from 25 to 30 Impressions were 
 taken before they lost their power, being engraved on 
 Copper. 
 
 (Signed) “ C. Turner.” 
 
 “Having printed the plates of the Liber Studiorum I 
 beg to say they were Copper and produced on the average 
 from 20 to 30 proofs of a tine class. 
 
 (Signed) “ S. Lajiee.” Mar. 1, 1852. 
 
 “ As Engraver of several of the plates of the Taber 
 Studiorum I hereby certify to the truth of the above 
 statement. 
 
 (Signed) “Thomas Lupton.” Mar. 2, 1852. 
 
 I N. B . — Son if note is require'/ a s to the abort statements, 
 especially after what l have said (Introduction, p. xxxiii) as to 
 the large number of fine impressions discovered among Turner's 
 effects after his death , and since sold by his executors. 
 
 In my estimate of the number of goo d impressions which 
 apfiearsd in 1873 I include, of course, all First States ; also all 
 Second States ( taking them as an average) ; and » cith several 
 /dates l consider early Third States are rightly to be called 
 
 “ fine.” — W. G. R.] 
 
APPENDIX C. 
 
 189 
 
 APPENDIX C. 
 
 The Varying Styles of the Etchings. 
 
 I have already (Introduction, p. xiv.) called attention to 
 the very varying styles apparent in the Etchings of Liber 
 Studiorum, and I have stated that these variations had 
 appeared to me so important and so considerable as to lead 
 me to doubt whether some of the plates, though claiming 
 to be the work of Turner himself, were actually etched by 
 him. These doubts, which arose in the first instance from 
 the appearance of the Etchings themselves, received 
 apparent confirmation from other sources, which I shall 
 place before my readers. 
 
 Firstly — Among the papers given to the Print Boom of 
 the British Museum by the late John Pye, when his collec- 
 tion of Liber was purchased by that Department, were the 
 letters from Turner and F. C. Lewis, which will be found 
 in Appendix A. These, it will be seen, all clearly show 
 that, at the outset, Turner was desirous if possible to be 
 relieved of the trouble of etching the plates, and that he 
 wished to turn over that duty to his engraver, F. C. Lewis, 
 reserving only to himself the comparatively small part of 
 adding any further etched work which might be needful, 
 over the aquatint. 
 
 Secondly — Whilst going through with Mr. J. E. Taylor 
 his unrivalled collection of Liber Prints and Etchings, 
 and examining with him minutely the margins of all 
 his impressions, we discovered, on the margins of two 
 Etchings, pencil notes unmistakably in Turner’s hand- 
 writing, as follows : — 
 
CATALOGUE OF LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 10 ;> 
 
 (A.) On an Etching of Pemhury Mill (No. 12) — 
 
 “ This will do. The other plate you had better take a proof off ; 
 then put on a clear ground and let me have it to make good deficiencies. 
 I have not the Etching-tools , send the Box.” 
 
 ( B .) On an Etching of the Luke of Thun (No. 15)— 
 
 “This will do when the dry ('point) is taken off — 'put out the dry 
 point lines — add the jew lines 1 have put in pencil , in dry point.” 
 (here follow a row of strokes in pencil, corresponding to a similar row 
 of pencil strokes on the water) “yet rather too strong.” 
 
 It was thus evident from (B) that another engraver, 
 Charles Turner, was definitely instructed by the painter 
 to work upon the Etching — both to remove work already 
 there, and to add the further work indicated by the pencil 
 marks. And from (.1) was clear what seemed at all events 
 strange — that Turner had not then any etching-tools, but 
 had to request Lewis to send the box — Lewis’s own pre- 
 sumably, as every engraver would, as a matter of course, 
 possess a set of etching-tools. 
 
 Thirdly — While examining, in the l’rint Room of the 
 British Museum, the two noble volumes of Proofs of the 
 complete works of William Say, the engraver — which, as 1 
 have before mentioned, he bequeathed to his son, and which 
 Ids son most generously bestowed on the nation — 1 was 
 somewhat surprised to find that, with the proof of each Liber 
 plate engraved by Say, was, on the same mount, a proof 
 of the Etching also. Still, although it seemed strange 
 that the portion which was claimed by Turner as bus 
 especial work, should have been also claimed by the 
 engraver, who was supposed to have been concerned only 
 with the mezzotinting, I did not regard this as ot much 
 moment, imagining that Say simply desired that all work 
 on which he had been employed should go down to 
 posterity in a complete form, showing every stage ol its 
 progress. But, on going further, I was indeed surprised 
 
APPENDIX C. 
 
 191 
 
 at finding a proof of the Etching of a plate which is 
 claimed, and has always been supposed to be throughout 
 the work of Turner himself — TEsacus and Hesperie (No. 
 66). Yet here was the Etching alone , among the treasured 
 works of Say. How, I asked, could Say have had any- 
 thing to do with this plate, even admitting that his having 
 mezzotinted the others was sufficient ground to justify 
 his including their Etchings amongst his works ? Say’s 
 own reputation was above suspicion of dishonesty, and (as 
 Mr. Graves, of Pall Mall, who knew him well, justly 
 remarked to me) what motive could he have in spuriously 
 appropriating as his own, work which at that time (Say 
 died in 1834) was thought little or nothing of Principle 
 apart, it was not worth doing. 
 
 Fourthly — On the margins of some of these Proofs of 
 Say’s plates, as well as on others in private collections, I 
 noticed repeatedly in pencil the words ‘ Aquafortis by W. 
 Say! This, I believe, was a form at that time frequently 
 used to denote the etcher of a plate. 
 
 It will be seen, then, that to confirm my previous 
 suspicions, founded upon the great diversities in style and 
 handling manifest in the Etchings themselves, apparently 
 four additional pieces of evidence had come before me. 
 These I would recapitulate as follows : — 
 
 First — Turner’s desire at the outset to be relieved of 
 the trouble of etching. 
 
 Second — The evidence from the pencil notes that 
 Charles Turner did actually work upon at least one 
 Etching, and therefore might be presumed to have done 
 so on others. 
 
 Third — The finding among Say’s works, not only the 
 Etchings of the plates he mezzotinted, but also the 
 
 } See Introduction, p. xxxvi., note. 
 
192 
 
 CATALOGUE OF LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 Etching of a plate with which he was not known to 
 have had anything to do. 
 
 Fourth — Say’s frequent pencil memorandums on his 
 Proofs — “ Aquafortis by W. Say.” 
 
 Utterly puzzled by these various reasons for doubting 
 the authorship of certain of the Etchings, which reasons 
 were again confronted (a) by the fact that some of those 
 very Etchings which appeared to contain work unlike 
 Turner’s, also contained work which it was impossible to 
 believe could have been done by any other hand than his; 
 and (b) by the fact that in two instances — Arveron (No. GO) 
 and Bonneville (No. G4) -where the Etchings (very similar 
 in their handling) have always been received as the work 
 of Dawe — Turner had not claimed them as his own, and 
 therefore might fairly be regarded as the* real author of 
 those he did claim, — utterly puzzled 1 say, l consulted 
 Mr. Seymour 1 laden in the matter, laying before him all 
 my doubts, and all the evidence pro and am which I have 
 just enumerated, and hoping, as the result showed 1 was 
 justiiied in doing, from his long acquaintance with and 
 interest in the Liber, as well as from his practical know- 
 ledge of all the technique of etching, for some elucidation 
 of the mystery, or, failing that, the satisfaction of at least 
 obtaining his recognition of the reasonableness of my 
 “ difficulties of belief.” 
 
 After a careful study of the Etchings themselves, <a 
 complete series of which were kindly lent us by Mr. .T. E. 
 Taylor, to whom I am also indebted for liis own sug- 
 gestions respecting them,) and a patient hearing of all t lie 
 points I laid before him, Mr. Haden’s practical knowledge 
 enabled him to supply what will prolmbly prove to be the 
 clue to the mystery, in pointing out, as the main cause of 
 the difference in style of the Etchings, the fact of their 
 having been bit tcn-in by other hands than Turner s , and by 
 different hands . 
 
APPENDIX C. 
 
 193 
 
 Of the importance of this point, and how far it clears 
 up the question, my readers must judge for themselves 
 from the following letter, in which Mr. Haden has embodied 
 his views :• — 
 
 “ 38, Hertford Street, Mayfair, 
 “ May 26, 1878. 
 
 “ My dear, Mr. Rawlinson, 
 
 “ I am not surprised that you should feel some 
 difficulty in accepting as Turner’s work much that you 
 find on those of the “ Liber ” plates which are professedly 
 drawn and etched by him. Tor all that, I am of opinion 
 that with certain obvious exceptions, the drawing on the 
 plate was in every case made by Turner, and that the 
 difference in the appearance of the resulting etching 
 depends on the fact that the biting-in was by another 
 hand. It is difficult for any one but a practical Etcher 
 to understand how much of the character of the 
 work depends on the biting, and I am clearly of 
 opinion that although Turner drew,— and in that sense 
 etched, — his subject on the plate, he did not bite it, but 
 that he delegated this and such technical dealing with the 
 plate as is involved in erasures and corrections, either to 
 the engravers who were employed to mezzotint it, or to 
 the expert who grounded and might also have been 
 employed to bite it. This division of labour in en- 
 graved work is not uncommon and would be especially 
 applicable to such exceptional plates as compose the 
 Liber Studiorum. An artist who is not an expert in 
 etching, but who sees the advantage of a forcible etching 
 as the groundwork of a mezzotint plate projects, let us 
 say, such a work as the “ Liber,” and proposes, as Turner 
 did, to superintend the publication of it himself — How 
 would he proceed ? The work is to consist of upwards of 
 100 plates which have first to be grounded, then etched, 
 
 o 
 
194 
 
 CATALOGUE OF LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 (i.e. drawn upon with a needle,) then bitten, and then — the 
 corrections in the etchings having been made — covered 
 with the mezzotint ground, and finished by the mezzo- 
 tinter. How much of all this in a work of such magnitude 
 would such an artist as Turner, chary of his time, be likely 
 to undertake to do himself? In my opinion, he would 
 think he had done enough when he had furnished the 
 subject, made the drawing of it on the plate, and super- 
 intended the biting and correction of that drawing, and 
 that he would consider himself fully justified in inscribing 
 on such a plate the words “ Drawn and Etched by J. M. W. 
 Turner.” That much, and the laborious process of super- 
 intending its passage through the different hands engaged 
 in finishing it, I see no reason whatever to doubt that 
 Turner did, and that the apparent difference of handling 
 which you have observed in the prefatory Etchings depends 
 upon the biting, erasures, additions and corrections which 
 the plate has received in the course of its passage towards 
 completion. 
 
 “ I hope you will think this explanation satisfactory and 
 that it will solve your doubts as to all those plates which 
 are claimed by Turner to be drawn and etched by him- 
 self. If it should fail to do so you have only, I think, 
 to compare such plates as the two Farm-yards, both of 
 which are undoubtedly drawn upon the plate by Turner, 
 but which have been bitten by different hands. So dif- 
 ferent are these plates in accent, colour, balance and general 
 expression, that you would suppose they had been drawn 
 on the plate by different people. However, I am persuaded 
 that it is not so. 
 
 “ Faithfully yours, 
 
 " F. Seymour Haden.” 
 
A PPENDIX C. 
 
 195 
 
 It only remains for me to lay before my readers a List 
 (Ho. 2) of the Etchings which had seemed to me to be 
 either wholly or in parts doubtful, and to say that whilst 
 Mr. Haden’s view appears to me to account for a large 
 amount of the variations I have noticed, it will be seen 
 that it does not preclude but admits, the probability of 
 there being in the Etchings a considerable amount of work 
 added by the different engravers — work which in some 
 cases (e.g. The Lake of Thun), may have been added under 
 Turner’s instructions, and in others may have been left to 
 the discretion of the engravers themselves. I am in hopes 
 that the attention of persons more experienced than myself 
 in etching may be directed to the question, and that thus 
 further light may be thrown upon it. 
 
 I have thought it advisable also to give a List (Ho. 1) 
 of the Etchings which are not claimed by Turner as 
 his own. 
 
 List Ho. 1.— Etchings not claimed by Turner as 
 his own : — 
 
 Mill near the Grand Chartreuse (Ho. 54). Here I think 
 Turner has touched upon some one else’s work, possibly 
 Dawe’s ; although the handling seems to me different from 
 Hos. 60 and 64. 
 
 Raglan Castle (Ho. 58). This I think is Dawe’s work ; 
 it is a different class of subject, but there seems a strong 
 similarity in style to, 
 
 Source of Arveron (Ho. 60) and Bonneville (Ho. 64). 
 These two have always been ascribed to Dawe. They 
 will be seen to be very much alike in touch and general 
 handling. Hotice especially the pines in each. 
 
 List Ho. 2. — Etchings showing apparent signs of 
 work other than Turner’s : — 
 
 Basle (Ho. 5) ? 
 
 Lake of Thun (Ho. 15). See page 192. 
 
]96 
 
 CATALOGUE OF LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 Coast of Yorkshire (No. 24). Rocks in foreground ? 
 
 Marine Dabblers (No. 29). Shading of the large boat 
 on the left ? 
 
 Blair Athol (No. 30). Work on stones at the extreme 
 right ? 
 
 Fairy Queen (No. 30) ? 
 
 Water Mill (No. 37). Foliage on the extreme left and 
 on the wall above the horses on the right. 
 
 Mild may Sea-jneee (No. 40). Casks and timbers on 
 the left? This Etching has a great similarity in general 
 appearance to Fiver Wye (No. 43), which was engraved 
 by Annis, who is given as the joint engraver (with 
 Easling) of this plate. Possibly the biting-in and re- 
 touching of the Etching was Annis’s part. 
 
 Fiver Wye (No. 48). Foreground leafage? — compare 
 with leafage in Frontispiece (No. 1), Isis (No. OS), and 
 others. 
 
 A 'ton, Ploughing (No. 79). Compare Turner’s First 
 Etching (A.) with the Second Etching (14) which some 
 good judges attribute to Lupton. 
 
 Fan and Syrinx (No. SO) ? 
 
 Mr. Kuskin ( Elements of Drawing, p. 133, note) lias said 
 that Du whin in Abbey (No. 50) was also not etched by 
 Turner, but by Lupton. A letter however from Lupton 
 himself, now in the possession of Mr. Henry Vaughan, 
 distinctly states that Mr. liuskin is mistaken, and that 
 the Etching was Turner’s own. The fact however of such 
 an Etching as Dumblain having been considered by so 
 great an authority as Mr. Ruskin to have been the work 
 of Lupton, and the differences in opinion on the Second 
 Etching of Eton (see page 156), appear to me to show the 
 caution necessary in pronouncing between artists’ work, 
 and the best professional work, in preliminary etchings, 
 such as those of the Liber. 
 
APPENDIX D . 
 
 197 
 
 APPENDIX D. 
 
 List of Plates engraved on Steel by Lupton, 
 1858 — 1864, in facsimile of Liber Studxorum. 
 
 *The Prontispiece. 
 
 *Tlie Woman and Tambourine. 
 
 * Raglan Castle. 
 
 * Solway Moss. 
 
 * Rispali. 
 
 * Little Devil’s Bridge. 
 
 * Source of the Arveron. 
 
 *f* Peat Bog. 
 
 •f-Procris and Cephalus. 
 
 Mill near the Grand Chartreuse. 
 
 Calm. 
 
 •f-Pembury Mill. 
 
 "[•The Bridge and Cows. 
 
 *f* Windmill and Lock. 
 
 ^Norham Castle. 
 
 The above plates, though finely engraved by Lupton, 
 can, other differences apart, readily be distinguished from 
 the original Liber plates, by the different effect of the 
 
 * These have in the margins “ Published by Colnaghi and Co., 1858.” 
 + These have no publisher’s name. Peat Bog and Procris and Cephalus 
 are dated 1864. 
 
 t+ This has in the margin “Engraved and published by Thomas 
 Lupton, 4 Keppel St, , Russell Square. ” 
 
198 
 
 CATALOGUE OF LIBER STUD 10 RUM. 
 
 mezzotinting on steel. They are printed on a stout, 
 hand-made English paper, with the exception of The 
 Mill near the Grand Chartreuse, which was printed on the 
 old French paper. The outside wrapper bore a dedication 
 (by permission) to Mr. John Buskin, and announced that 
 the Selection would comprise about twelve Parts, each 
 containing three Plates. The publishers were Messrs. 
 Colnaghi and Co., and Mr. Lupton was the engraver. 
 The project fell through and the Plates were never issued 
 to the public. 
 
INDEX. 
 
NUMERICAL INDEX OF PLATES AND 
 
 ENGRAVERS. 
 
 PUBLISHED PLATES. 
 
 No. Name of Plate. 
 
 Initial 
 
 Letter. 
 
 Engraver. 
 
 Page 
 
 1. Frontispiece 
 
 • • •! 
 
 f J. M. W. Turner 
 [ &J.G. Easling 
 
 6 
 
 2. The Bridge and Cows 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 9 
 
 3. The Woman and Tambourine . . 
 
 E. P. . 
 
 G. Turner . 
 
 # 
 
 11 
 
 4. Flint Castle — Vessels unloading . . 
 
 M. . . 
 
 G. Turner . 
 
 • 
 
 13 
 
 5. Basle .......... 
 
 A. . . 
 
 C. Turner . 
 
 . 
 
 15 
 
 6. Jason 
 
 
 
 
 17 
 
 7. The Straw-yard ....... 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 20 
 
 8. The Castle above the Meadows . . 
 
 E. P. . 
 
 G. Turner. 
 
 # 
 
 22 
 
 9. Mont St. Gothard 
 
 
 G. Turner . 
 
 # 
 
 24 
 
 10. Ships in a Breeze ....... 
 
 M. . . 
 
 C. Turner. 
 
 . 
 
 26 
 
 11. Holy Island Cathedral 
 
 
 
 . 
 
 28 
 
 12. Pembury Mill, Kent 
 
 P. . . 
 
 
 . 
 
 30 
 
 13. The Bridge in Middle Distance . . 
 
 E. P. . 
 
 G. Turner . 
 
 • 
 
 32 
 
 14. Dunstanborough Castle 
 
 A. . . 
 
 G. Turner. 
 
 • 
 
 34 
 
 15. Lake of Thun . 
 
 M. . . 
 
 
 # 
 
 36 
 
 16. Fifth Plague of Egypt ..... 
 
 H. . . 
 
 
 , 
 
 38 
 
 17. The Farm-yard with the Cock . . 
 
 P. . . 
 
 C. Turner . 
 
 . 
 
 40 
 
 18. Clyde .......... 
 
 
 C. Turner . 
 
 « 
 
 42 
 
 19. Little Devil’s Bridge over the Russ . 
 
 M s . . 
 
 G. Turner . 
 
 . 
 
 44 
 
 20. Leader Sea-piece 
 
 
 
 • 
 
 46 
 
 21. Morpeth. 
 
 
 
 • 
 
 48 
 
 22. Juvenile Tricks 
 
 P. . . 
 
 W. Say 
 
 • 
 
 50 
 
 23. Hindoo Worshipper 
 
 E. P. . 
 
 B. l)unkarton 
 
 51 
 
 24. Coast of Yorkshire near Whitby 
 
 M. . . 
 
 W. Say 
 
 • 
 
 53 
 
 25. Hind-Head Hill ....... 
 
 M. . . 
 
 R. Dunbarton 
 
 55 
 
 26. London from Greenwich .... 
 
 
 
 
 57 
 
 27. Windmill and Lock ...... 
 
 
 W. Say . 
 
 
 59 
 
 28. Junction of Severn and Wye . . . 
 
 E. P. . 
 
 J. M. W. Turner 62 
 
 29. Marine Dabblers 
 
 M. . . 
 
 W. Say . 
 
 • 
 
 64 
 
 
20 2 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 No. 
 
 Name of Plate. 
 
 Initial 
 
 Letter. 
 
 Engraver. 
 
 Page 
 
 30. 
 
 Near Blair Athol, Scotland . . . 
 
 M. . . 
 
 W. Say . . 
 
 65 
 
 31. 
 
 Lauffenbourgh 
 
 
 
 67 
 
 32. 
 
 Young Anglers 
 
 
 
 69 
 
 33. 
 
 St. Catherine’s Hill near Guilford . 
 
 E. P. . 
 
 J. C. Bailing 
 
 70 
 
 34. 
 
 Martello Towers near Bexhill, Sussex 
 
 M. . . 
 
 TV. Say . . 
 
 72 
 
 35. 
 
 Inverary Pier, Loch Fyne — Morning 
 
 M. . . 
 
 J.M. TV. Turner 73 
 
 36. 
 
 From Spenser’s Fairy Queen . . . 
 
 II. . . 
 
 T. Hodgttts . 
 
 76 
 
 37. 
 
 Water-Mill 
 
 P. . . 
 
 B. Dunkarton 
 
 i i 
 
 38. 
 
 Woman at a Tank 
 
 
 TV. Say . . 
 
 78 
 
 30. 
 
 Crypt of Kirkstall Abbey .... 
 
 A. . . 
 
 J. M. W. Turner 80 
 
 40. 
 
 Mildmay Sea-pieco 
 
 
 s IV. Annii an d 
 \ J.C. Bailing 83 
 
 41. 
 
 Procris and Cephalus 
 
 II. . . 
 
 G. Clint . . 
 
 84 
 
 42. 
 
 Winchelsea, Sussex 
 
 
 
 86 
 
 43. 
 
 The Bridge and Goats 
 
 E. P. . 
 
 F. C. Lari* . 
 
 88 
 
 44. 
 
 Calm 
 
 
 
 45. 
 
 Peat Bog, Scotland 
 
 M. . . 
 
 G. Clint . . 
 
 93 
 
 46. 
 
 Rispah 
 
 II. . . 
 
 li. Dunkarton 
 
 95 
 
 47. 
 
 Hedging and Ditching 
 
 
 
 97 
 
 48. 
 
 River Wye 
 
 
 IV. Annit 
 
 99 
 
 40. 
 
 Chain of Alps from Grenoble to) 
 Chamber! } 
 
 M. . . 
 
 IV. Say . . 
 
 101 
 
 50. 
 
 Mer de Glace - Valley of ( 'hamouni ) 
 
 M. . . 
 
 J.M. IV. Turner 103 
 
 
 — Savoy 1 
 
 
 
 
 51. 
 
 Rivaux Abbey, Yorkshire . . . . 
 
 A. . . 
 
 IT. Daxce . . 
 
 105 
 
 52. 
 
 Solway Moss 
 
 
 Thos. Lupton. 
 
 1<)7 
 
 5 1. Mill near the Grand Chartreuse, ) 
 Dauphiny f 
 
 55. Entrance of Calais Harbour . . . Jf. . 
 
 56. Dumblain Abbey, Scotland . . . a. . 
 
 57. Norham Castle on the Tweed . . r. . 
 
 58. Raglan Castle e. P- 
 
 5D. Ville de Thun, Switzerland . . . a. . 
 
 60. Source of the Arveron in the Valley ) 
 
 of Charaouni, Savoy . . . . f 
 
 61. Tenth Plague of Egypt .... n. . 
 
 62. Watercress Gatherers p. . 
 
 63. Twickenham — Pope’s Villa ... e. r. 
 
 64. Bonneville, Savoy m. . 
 
 65. Inverary Castle and Town, Scotland M. . 
 
 66. iEsacus and Hesperie h. . 
 
 67. East Gate, Winchelsea, Sussev . . r . 
 
 H. Daict . .110 
 
 J. .If. TV. Turner! 1 2 
 Thos. L upton . 114 
 a Tunur. .116 
 J. If. H'. IWnrrl 1 8 
 T. UodgctU . 120 
 
 J.M. TV.Tumer\2\ 
 
 W. Say . .124 
 77m*. Lepton. 126 
 H. Dawc . . 128 
 H . Daire . .129 
 C. Tunur. . 130 
 J.M. IV. runurl.32 
 S.IV. Rrynoldt 135 
 
LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 203 
 
 No. 
 
 Name of Plate. 
 
 Initial 
 
 Letter. 
 
 Engraver. r Page 
 
 68. 
 
 Isis 
 
 
 W. Say . . 136 
 
 69. Ben Arthur* Scotland 
 
 
 Thos. Lupton. 138 
 
 70. 
 
 Interior of a Church 
 
 A. . . 
 
 J.M. W.TurnerlZS 
 
 71. 
 
 Christ and the Woman of Samaria . 
 
 H. . . 
 
 S. W. Reynolds ] 41 
 
 UNPUBLISHED PLATES. 
 
 No. Name of Plate. 
 
 72. Apuleia in search of Apnleius . 
 
 73. Glaucus and Scylla .... 
 
 74. Sheep- washing, Windsor Castle 
 
 75. Dumbarton Rock 
 
 76. Crowhurst, Sussex 
 
 77. Temple of J upiter in the Island of iEgina 
 
 78. Swiss Bridge, Mont St. Gothard 
 
 79. Ploughing, Eton . . . 
 
 80. Pan and Syrinx . . . 
 
 81. Stonehenge at Daybreak . 
 
 82.. The Felucca 
 
 83. The Stork and Aqueduct 
 
 84. The Lost Sailor . . . 
 
 85. Moonlight at Sea, off the Isle of Wight . 
 
 86. Barges on the Medway at Chatham — 
 
 Moonlight ..... 
 
 87. Kingston Bank 
 
 88. The Deluge 
 
 89. Flounder Fishing, Battersea 
 
 90. Narcissus and Echo . . . 
 
 91. Sand Bank with Gipsies . . 
 
 92. View of a River from a Terrace 
 
 93. Falls of the Rhine, Schaffhausen 
 
 94. View of a Lake 
 
 95. Sion House, Twickenham . . 
 
 96. Huntsmen in a Wood . . . 
 
 97. Moonlight on a River — Lucerne ? 
 
 98. Shipping at the Entrance of the Medw 
 
 99. Fleet of Men of War 
 
 100. Classical Landscape . . 
 
 ay 
 
 Engraver. Page. 
 
 W. Say .... 144 
 
 W. Say .... 146 
 C. Turner . . .-147 
 
 Thos. Lupton . . 149 
 
 Uncertain . . .151 
 
 Uncertain . . .152 
 
 J. M. W. Turner . 153 
 Thos. Lupton . .155 
 
 Etched only . . .158 
 
 J. M. W. Turner . 159 
 J , M. W. Turner . 160 
 Uncertain . . .161 
 
 J. M.W. Turner . 162 
 J. M. W. Turner . 163 
 
 | J. M. W. Turner . 164 
 
 J. M. W. Turner . 165 
 J. M. W. Turner . 166 
 J. M. W. Turner . 167 
 J. M. W. Turner . 168 
 J. M. W. Turner . 169 
 
 Unengraved . .170 
 
 do. ... 171 
 
 do. ... 172 
 
 do. . . . 173 
 
 do. ... 174 
 do. . . .175 
 
 do. ... 176 
 
 do. ... 177 
 
 do. . . .178 
 
204 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 ALPHABETICAL INDEX OF PLATES. 
 
 Anglers, Young .... 
 
 iEsacus and Hesperie 
 
 Apuleia in search of Apuleius . 
 
 Aqueduct and Stork 
 
 Arveron, Source of .... 
 
 I Urges on the Medway — Moonlight. 
 
 Basle 
 
 Ben Arthur 
 
 Bexhill 
 
 Blair Athol ..... 
 Bonneville. ..... 
 Bridgo and Cows .... 
 Bridge and Coats .... 
 Bridge in Middle Distanco 
 
 Calais Harbour 
 
 Calm ...... 
 
 Castle above the Meadows 
 Cephalus and Procris 
 
 Chain of Alps from Grenoble to Chamberi 
 Chatham — Moonlight 
 Chepstow Castle .... 
 Christ and the Woman of Samaria . 
 Church Interior .... 
 Clyde, Drawing of the 
 Coast of Yorkshire .... 
 Crowhurst ..... 
 Crypt of Kirkstail Abbey . 
 
 Deluge 
 
 Derwentwater ..... 
 Devil’s Bridge, Little 
 Dumbarton Rock .... 
 Dumbl&in Abbey .... 
 Dunstan borough Castle 
 
 PAOK 
 
 69 
 
 132 
 
 1-11 
 
 161 
 
 121 
 
 164 
 
 16 
 
 138 
 72 
 65 
 
 129 
 
 9 
 
 89 
 32 
 
 112 
 
 90 
 
 99 
 
 *•44 
 
 84 
 
 101 
 
 164 
 
 99 
 
 141 
 
 139 
 42 
 63 
 
 151 
 
 80 
 
 166 
 
 172 
 
 44 
 
 149 
 
 114 
 
 34 
 
LIBER STUDIORUM. 
 
 205 
 
 East Gate, Winchelsea 
 Egremont Sea-piece . 
 
 Entrance of Calais Harbour 
 Eton — Ploughing 
 Fairy Queen, Spenser’s 
 Falls of the Rhine . 
 Farm-yard with the Cock 
 Felucca 
 
 Fifth Plague of Egypt 
 Fleet of Men of War 
 Flint Castle 
 
 Flounder Fishing, Battersea 
 Frontispiece 
 Garrick’s Temple and Hampton 
 Claucus and Scylla . 
 
 Grand Chartreuse 
 Greenwich, London from 
 Grenoble . 
 
 Guardship at the N ore 
 Guilford . 
 
 Hedging and Ditching 
 Heron’s Pool 
 Hind-Head Hill 
 Hindoo Ablutions 
 Hindoo Devotions 
 Hindoo Worshipper . 
 
 Holy Island Cathedral 
 Interior of a Church 
 Inverary Castle and Town 
 Inverary Pier . 
 
 Isis .... 
 
 Jason 
 
 Junction of Severn and Wy 
 Juvenile Tricks 
 Kingston Bank . 
 
 Kirkstall Crypt 
 Lake of Thun . 
 
 Lauffenbourgh . 
 
 Leader Sea-piece 1 
 Little Devil’s Bridge 
 Loch Fyne 
 
 Lock and Windmill . 
 
 London from Greenwich 
 
 Church 
 
 PAGE 
 
 135 
 26 
 
 112 
 
 155 
 
 76 
 
 171 
 
 40 
 
 160 
 
 38 
 
 177 
 
 13 
 
 167 
 
 6 
 
 128 
 
 146 
 
 110 
 
 57 
 
 101 
 
 46 
 
 70 
 
 97 
 
 161 
 
 55 
 
 78 
 
 51 
 
 51 
 
 28 
 
 139 
 
 130 
 
 73 
 
 136 
 17 
 62 
 50 
 
 165 
 
 80 
 
 36 
 
 67 
 
 46 
 
 44 
 
 73 
 
 59 
 
 57 
 
206 
 
 CATALOGUE OF 
 
 Lost Sailor 
 Lucerne — Moonlight 
 Macon . 
 
 Magdalen Reading . 
 
 Marine Dabblers 
 Martello Towers 
 Mer de Glace . 
 
 Mildmay Sea-piece 
 Mill near the Grand Chartreuse 
 Mont St. Gothard . 
 
 Moonlight- Chatham 
 Moonlight — Lucerne 
 Moonlight, off the Isle of Wight 
 Narcissus and Echo 
 Norham Castle 
 ( kikhampton Castle 
 Ran and Syrinx 
 Peat Bog 
 Pembury Mill 
 Ploughing — Eton 
 Pope’s Villa, Twickenham 
 Premium Landscape 
 Procris and Cephalus 
 Raglan Castle . 
 
 Reading Magdalen . 
 
 Kispah . 
 
 Rivaux Abbey 
 River Wye 
 St. Catherine’s Hill 
 St. Gothard, Mont . 
 
 Sand Bank with Gipsies 
 Selmffhauscn . 
 
 Sea-piece, Egremont 
 Sea-piece, Leader 
 Sea-piece, Mildmay 
 Severn and Wye 
 Sheep-washing, Windsor Castle 
 Shipping at the Entrance of the Medway 
 Ships in a Breeze . 
 
 Sion House, Twickenham 
 Solitude ..... 
 
 Solway Moss .... 
 
 Source of the Arveron 
 
 PACE 
 . 162 
 . 175 
 
 . 170 
 
 . 109 
 
 . 64 
 
 . 72 
 
 . 103 
 
 . 83 
 
 . no 
 
 24 
 . 164 
 
 . 175 
 
 . 163 
 
 . 168 
 
 . 116 
 •>o 
 
 . 158 
 
 . 93 
 
 . 30 
 
 . 155 
 
 . 128 
 . 144 
 
 . 84 
 
 . 118 
 . 109 
 
 . 95 
 
 . 105 
 
 90 
 . 70 
 
 24 
 . 169 
 
 . 171 
 
 . 26 
 . 46 
 
 . 83 
 
 . 62 
 . 147 
 
 . 176 
 
 26 , 176 
 . 173 
 
 . 109 
 
 . 107 
 
 . 121 
 
LIBER STUDIO RUM. 207 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Spenser’s Fairy Queen 76 
 
 Stonehenge .......... 159 
 
 Stork and Aqueduct 161 
 
 Storm over the Lizard . . . . . . . .162 
 
 Straw-yard .......... 20 
 
 Sun between Trees 32 
 
 Swiss Bridge .......... 153 
 
 Tambourine Landscape . . . . . . . .11 
 
 Temple of Jupiter ......... 152 
 
 Tenth Plague of Egypt ........ 124 
 
 Thun, Lake of .......... 36 
 
 Thun, Ville de 120 
 
 Twickenham, Pope’s Villa ....... 128 
 
 Via Mala .......... 153 
 
 View of a Lake ......... 172 
 
 View of a River from a Terrace . . . . . .170 
 
 Ville de Thun 120 
 
 Watercress Gatherers 126 
 
 Water-Mill 77 
 
 Whitby, Coast of Yorkshire, near 53 
 
 Winchelsea, East Gate . . . . . . . .135 
 
 Winchelsea, Sussex ........ 86 
 
 Windmill and Lock ........ 59 
 
 Windsor Castle from Salt Hill ...... 147 
 
 Windsor Castle — Sheep-washing ...... 147 
 
 Woman and Tambourine .11 
 
 Woman at a Tank ......... 78 
 
 Wye and Severn 62 
 
 Wye, River .......... 99 
 
 Yorkshire, Coast of ........ 53 
 
 Young Anglers 69 
 
 THE END. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
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