Martello Towers near Bexhill, Sussex (Liber Studiorum, part VII, plate 34)
Medium
Etching and mezzotint; first state of four (Finberg)
Dimensions
plate: 7 x 10 1/8 in. (17.8 x 25.7 cm) sheet: 8 1/4 x 11 7/16 in. (21 x 29.1 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1928
Accession Number
28.97.34
Tags
Art Historical Context
Created in June 1811, “Martello Towers near Bexhill, Sussex” forms plate 34 of J.M.W. Turner’s ambitious Liber Studiorum. Turner himself etched the outlines, while engraver William Say translated the tonal effects in mezzotint. Published as the first of four states, this impression captures the artist’s desire to present landscape in its many moods and categories—here blending marine and architectural subjects within a single coastal scene. The print depicts the squat, circular Martello towers erected along England’s southern shore as defenses against Napoleonic invasion. In the foreground, f...
About the Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner|William Say|Joseph Mallord William Turner · 1775–1851
Joseph Mallord William Turner, born on 23 April 1775 in London's Covent Garden to barber William Turner and Mary Marshall, emerged as a child prodigy amid personal hardships. His mother suffered mental illness and died in Bethlem Hospital in 1804, while his father supported his early sketches by displaying them in his shop. Around age 10, Turner stayed with his uncle Joseph Mallord William Marshal...