Turner: In Light and Shade

Inspired by Claude’s Liber Veritatus – a published collection of drawings that catalogued the artist’s completed paintings – Turner began working on his Liber Studiorum (‘Book of Studies’) in 1806; by the end of the following decade, 71 of a planned 100 prints had been published as a collection of etchings and mezzotints. Based on sepia watercolours depicting scenes both witnessed and imagined, from peat bogs in Scotland to the crypts of ruined abbeys, the prints are grouped into six types of landscapes: marine, mountainous, pastoral, historical, architectural and elevated or epic pastoral. The full suite can be seen as a kind of manifesto about the artist’s beliefs about the genre of landscape art. To mark the 250th anniversary of Turner’s birth, the Whitworth in Manchester – one of the few institutions in possession of a complete edition of the Liber – is displaying the work in its entirety for first time in more than a century (7 February–2 November). Here, the series is paired with watercolours by Turner from the museum’s own collection, including Storm in the Pass of St Gotthard, Switzerland (1845), as well as a number of works loaned from private and public collections.

Find out more from the Whitworth’s website.
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Peat Bog, Scotland (1812), plate 45 from Liber Studiorum by J.M.W. Turner, engaged by G. Clint. The Whitworth, Manchester. Photo: © The Whitworth, University of Manchester

Storm in the Pass of St. Gotthard, Switzerland (1845), J.M.W. Turner. The Whitworth, Manchester. Photo: © The Whitworth, University of Manchester