The Fifth Plague of Egypt

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Artist: J. M. W. Turner (British, 1775–1851)
Medium: Etching and mezzotint, printed in brown ink on medium, slightly textured, cream laid paper
Size: Sheet: 11 1/2 × 16 3/4 inches (29.2 × 42.5 cm)
Museum: Yale Center for British Art
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

According to Turner, all landscapes belong to one of six fundamental categories: Architectural, Historical, Marine, Mountainous, Pastoral, and Elevated Pastoral. These prints are part of a systematic publication, the Liber Studiorum (“Book of Studies”), containing examples from each of these categories. This work provides further testimony to the enduring influence of Claude Lorrain. Claude made sepia ink and wash drawings to record all his authentic compositions and brought them together to form his celebrated Liber Veritatis (“Book of Truth”).

These drawings came to be seen as the epitome of the art of landscape and were later reproduced as fine mezzotints. They inspired Turner to make his own, even more ambitious equivalents. Though imitating the format and sepia coloring of Claude’s drawings, Turner’s plates were intended not as a record of his paintings but to illustrate his own original theory of landscape art. Although never completely finished, the Liber Studiorum is among the artist’s most personal and pioneering contributions to the practice of printmaking.

Text: Yale Center for British Art.