J. M. W. Turner, Swiss Bridge, Mont St. Gothard, Liber Studiorum, 1879

Description

Sepia-toned etching on cold press wove paper. Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Fair condition in the original state from 1878-1879; … more Sepia-toned etching on cold press wove paper. Unsigned and unnumbered, as issued. Fair condition in the original state from 1878-1879; will be professionally conserved to very good condition at the dealer’s expense upon request of the buyer. Notes: From the folio, Fac-similes Of Thirty-three Etchings By Turner For The Plates Of The Liber Studiorum Reproduced From Copies In The Possession Of Mr. Ruskin And Of The Editor, 1878-1879. Published by John Ruskin, Coniston, Lancashire, England, and Charles Eliot Norton, Cambridge, Massachusetts; printed by Welch, Bigelow, and Company, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1878-1879. Excerpted from the folio, The plates of the Liber Studiorum are examples of the union of the two processes of etching and of mezzotint, in the production of works of landscape engraving of consummate beauty and significance. These plates, with their marvellous refinements of light and shade and color, cannot be satisfactorily reproduced. But Turner had a few impressions of his etching of each plate taken off before the mezzotint was applied to the copper; and the etching can be reproduced in fac-simile of absolute correctness, with the single lack of an embossed effect in the darker portions produced by the pressing of the damp paper into the deeply-bitten furrows of the metal. The etchings give the selected lines of the composition, — those on which its expression depends. They are consequently of the highest interest to the student of landscape art as trustworthy examples of Turner's mode of working from nature, and of the action of his imagination in the determination of the main forms of his landscape, as well as in the rendering of the respective values and relations of the selected lines. The art of the landscape painter is the twofold art of interpretation of nature and of human sentiment in relation to nature. It requires of the artist the power of rational and imaginative selection from the infinite complexity of natural aspects, of those which are not only essential and characteristic, but also appropriate to his process and end. Of this art Turner was a supreme master and exemplar. His etchings are now rare. Mr. Ruskin says, in his Elements of Drawing, "It is very unlikely that you should meet with one of the original etchings: if you should, it will be a drawing-master in itself alone; for it is not only equivalent to a pen-and-ink drawing by Turner, but to a very careful one." The present set of fac-similes contains all the etchings which Mr. Ruskin, in his Elements of Drawing, recommends as most useful to students. —Charles Eliot Norton, June 1878. Excerpted from November 21, 1878 edition of The Nation, Now, it is just this preliminary state of some of the Liber Sundiorum' prints which is reproduced in the work whose title is given above. A few copies, as has been said, were printed from each plate before the mezzo-tint was applied to it; of these few copies some are very feeble and poor, probably because no great care was taken in printing them. But Mr.
Norton and Mr. Ruskin here brought together fine and clear impressions of thirty-three out of the ninety, published and unpublished, and very good heliotype reproductions of them have been made by a Boston house, which, together with a brief descriptive and critical comment by Mr. Norton, constitute the publication. These prints are not finished pictures, nor even finished line-drawings; their chief value is in containing so much of the essential lines of mountain-form and of tree-growth and of ships and boats. It would be difficult to find elsewhere such consummate knowledge and insight set down so skillfully. As lessons in land-scape-drawing and in judging of landscape art, their value is hard to over-estimate. Every person who seriously inclines to the study of landscape, practically or critiendly, should become familiar with them, so much is given in so little. It is, we think, to be regretted that Mr. Norton has not given a fuller description and analysis of the prints. The render is referred, however, to the catalogue of the whole work, prepared by the sume editor some three years ago; and that catalogue again refers to Mr.
Ruskin's works for fuller discussion. But what one would like to have is Mr. Norton's critical analysis of the whole set of seventy-one published and some twenty unpublished plates, with especial reference to the etchings, and to the thirty-three plates of which the etchings are given in this publication.

JOSEPH MALLORD WILLIAM TURNER RA (1775-1851), known in his time as William Turner, was an English Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolourist. He is known for his expressive colouring, imaginative landscapes and turbulent, often violent marine paintings. He left behind more than 550 oil paintings, 2,000 watercolours, and 30,000 works on paper. He was championed by the leading English art critic John Ruskin from 1840, and is today regarded as having elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivalling history painting. Turner was born in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden, London, to a modest lower-middle-class family and retained his lower class accent, while assiduously avoiding the trappings of success and fame. A child prodigy, Turner studied at the Royal Academy of Arts from 1789, enrolling when he was 14, and exhibited his first work there at 15. During this period, he also served as an architectural draftsman. He earned a steady income from commissions and sales, which he often only begrudgingly accepted owing to his troubled and contrary nature. He opened his own gallery in 1804 and became professor of perspective at the academy in 1807, where he lectured until 1828. He travelled around Europe from 1802, typically returning with voluminous sketchbooks.
Intensely private, eccentric, and reclusive, Turner was a controversial figure throughout his career. He did not marry, but fathered two daughters, Evelina (1801–1874) and Georgiana (1811–1843), by the widow Sarah Danby. He became more pessimistic and morose as he got older, especially after the death of his father in 1829; when his outlook deteriorated, his gallery fell into disrepair and neglect, and his art intensified. In 1841, Turner rowed a boat into the Thames so he could not be counted as present at any property in that year's census. He lived in squalor and poor health from 1845, and died in London in 1851 aged 76. Turner is buried in St Paul's Cathedral, London. less