J.M.W.Turner The 'Liber Studiorum'

From drawing to mezzotint (above) Scene on the French Coast Pencil, pen & ink, brown wash, 1806, 33 x 41.2 cm. Tate Gallery   (above right) etching of above, plus on- mouse over- etching with wash by Turner, 1807, 18 x 25.7 cm. (right) Scene on the French Coast, mezzotint by Charles Turner, British Museum, London

Turner initially contacted  three engravers James Girtin, F.C. Lewis and Charles Turner to executed his engravings. The later being chosen because of his superb Shipwreck mezzotint. Turner decides between aquatint and mezzotint and negotiates a price of 8 guineas each with his namesake. However many of the plates use both processes for a superior quality, always under the close supervision of Turner himself. Indeed he is purported to have done much of the engraving himself, creating a very completed procedure. The method appears to be an etching done from a drawing which is washed in tints of watercolour by Turner as a guide for the mezzotinter. Their are nine known proofs of Baste.

• Aquatint: A tone process introduced 1770s especially suited to the reproduction of watercolour. A form of etching using a porous ground, mostly mixed with sugar.

• Mezzotint: A form of tonal engraving, the engraving worked from dark to light on a metal plate on which a rocker tool is used to burr the plate. Then a scraper is used to smooth to the lighter part, the smoother the lighter as the ink will wipe into the burrs and off the smooth burnished parts.

• Engraving: The general name for printing vie. metal or wooden blocks.

• Etching: A delicate form of intaglio engraving. The metal  plate is covered with resin ground which is impervious to acid. This is drawn on with a stylus exposing the copper sheet, when the plate is put in acid the exposed drawn part is etched out by acid, controlled by the amount of time the plate is in the acid. Turner used this procedure as his initial process. Back to Top

J.M.W.Turner, visited Sir Walter Scott at Abbotsford, his home near Melrose in 1832. He painted many watercolours of Border abbeys and castles including one of Hermitage Castle. Under his supervision these watercolours were later made into engravings and published in book form.