Turner, Joseph Mallord William

Oblong folio (10 7/8 x 16 1/2 in.; 276 x 420 mm).  71 etched mezzotint and aquatint plates after J.M.W. Turner,  by J.C. Easling, Charles Turner, William Say, Robert Dunkarton, Thomas Hodgetts, William Annis, George Clint, F.C. Lewis, Henry Dawe, Thomas Lupton, and S.W. Reynolds, printed in colored and black inks; some light marginal spotting heavier on a few plates, some 14 plates lightly browned, plate 16 with marginal stains, plate 51 ("Tenth Plague of Egypt") lightly browned and a bit short at bottom, small repaired tear in lower margin of 49. Contemporary English green three-quarter morocco gilt over green cloth with embossed leafy designs, gilt-stamped title label on upper cover; upper hinge broken, extremities worn, title label scuffed.

Edward Swinburne (1788-1819, the poet's uncle, signature on second free endpaper) — Julia Swinburne (1796-1893, the poet's aunt, bookplate)

Houston, Texas, Blaffer Gallery, University of Houston

W.G. Rawlinson, Turner's Liber studiorum (1878)

see cataloguing
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A "truly monumental work taking rank with the highest productions of Turner's genius" (Rawlinson, p.iii).

Turner conceived the Liber studiorum in part as a response, and at the instigation of his friend William Frederick Wells, to Claude Lorrain's volume of drawings entitled Liber veritatis, of which prints were published by John Boydell in three volumes under the same title (London: 1777-1804). As the work progressed it acquired a momentum that was independent of the inspiration, "exhibiting intimately his strength, as indeed also his weakness, during a period of his life in which a large part of his strongest and soberest ... work was done" (Rawlinson, p.iii).

The 71 plates were issued in 14 parts (each containing five etchings) over some four years; in addition to these, a further 20 were printed, but not published. They were classified, using letters in the upper margin, as: Architectural ("A"), Pastoral ("P"), Elegant Pastoral ("E.P."), Marine ("M"), Mountainous ("M8" or "M"), and Historical ("H"). Of these 7 are in first state, 37 in second, 20 in third, and 7 in fourth or unknown state.