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Print made by William Bernard Cooke, 1778–1855, British, Martello Towers at Bexhill, 1817
- Title:
- Martello Towers at Bexhill
- Additional Title(s):
- Martello Towers at Bexhill-on-Sea
- Part Of:
- Date:
- 1817
- Materials & Techniques:
- Etching; early etched state on thick, slightly textured, cream wove paper
- Dimensions:
- Sheet: 11 5/8 × 17 5/16 inches (29.5 × 44 cm), Plate: 6 × 8 3/8 inches (15.2 × 21.3 cm)
- Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:
Inscribed in graphite, upper left: "R.103. The Etching."; upper right: "21"; inscribed on verso in graphite, lower left: "Hc"
Collector's mark: W. G. Rawlinson (Lugt 2624)
Lettered, lower left: "From Turner's Liber Studiorum 1817. | Martello Towers at Bexhill."; lettered, lower right: "W.B. Cooke fecit."
- Credit Line:
- Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
- Copyright Status:
- Public Domain
- Accession Number:
- B1977.14.6632
- Classification:
- Prints
- Collection:
- Prints and Drawings
- Access:
- Accessible in the Study Room [Request]
- Link:
- https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:15917
- Export:
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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. Gallery label for J. M. W. Turner: Romance and Reality (Yale Center for British Art, March - 29, 2025 - July 27, 2025)
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