''Liber Studiorum'' () is a collection of prints by
J. M. W. Turner. The collected works included seventy-one prints that he worked on and printed from 1807 to 1819. For the production of the prints, Turner created the
etching
Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other types ...
s for the prints, which were worked in
mezzotint
Mezzotint is a monochrome printmaking process of the '' intaglio'' family. It was the first printing process that yielded half-tones without using line- or dot-based techniques like hatching, cross-hatching or stipple. Mezzotint achieves tonal ...
by his collaborating engravers.
The original models for the printmakers to follow were mainly in
sepia
Sepia may refer to:
Biology
* ''Sepia'' (genus), a genus of cuttlefish
Color
* Sepia (color), a reddish-brown color
* Sepia tone, a photography technique
Music
* ''Sepia'', a 2001 album by Coco Mbassi
* ''Sepia'' (album) by Yu Takahashi
* " ...
watercolour
Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...
, sometimes with elements in pencil and other media, and are now in
Tate Britain
Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in ...
as part of the
Turner Bequest. Altogether there are over 100 paintings relating to the series, included some not published in the end. There are also numerous less formal drawings and watercolour studies in the Tate of the same subjects made by Turner on the spot or later.
Subsequent to the initial printing, the late 19th, early 20th century artist
Frank Short
Sir Francis Job "Frank" Short PPRE (19 June 1857 – 22 April 1945) was a British printmaker and teacher of printmaking. He revived the practices of mezzotint and pure aquatint, while expanding the expressive power of line in drypoint, etc ...
made successful reprintings with the plates, though many of the finer details had worn down.
The ''Liber Studiorum'' was an expression of his intentions for landscape art. Loosely based on
Claude Lorrain's ''
Liber Veritatis
The ''Liber Veritatis'', meaning ''Book of Truth'' in Latin, is a book of drawings recording his completed paintings made by Claude Lorrain, known in English as "Claude". Claude was a landscape painter in Rome, who began keeping this record i ...
'' (Book of Truth);
the plates were meant to be widely disseminated, and categorised the genre into six types: Marine, Mountainous, Pastoral, Historical, Architectural, and Elevated or Epic Pastoral. A museum is devoted to Turner's work in print form, the
Turner Museum in
Sarasota, Florida
Sarasota () is a city in Sarasota County on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The area is renowned for its cultural and environmental amenities, beaches, resorts, and the Sarasota School of Architecture. The city is located in the sou ...
, founded in 1974 by Douglass Montrose-Graem to house his collection of Turner prints. Other
print room
A print room is a room in an art gallery or museum where a collection of old master and modern prints, usually together with drawings, watercolours, and photographs, are held and viewed.
A further meaning is a room decorated by pasting prints ...
s with full sets include Tate Britain, the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
,
and the
Art Institute of Chicago.
References
Further reading
*
{{Authority control
1800s books
1810s prints
J. M. W. Turner
Collection of the Tate galleries
19th-century prints