Joseph Mallord William Turner

Aesacus and Hesperie

c.1817–18

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On loan

Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya (Barcelona, Spain): Turner Watercolours: Sun is God

Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of: Liber Studiorum: Parts 11-14
Medium: Etching and watercolour on paper
Dimensions: Support: 180 × 257 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D08166
Turner Bequest CXVIII L

Display caption

In this unusual sheet, the etching for one of the plates in the Liber Studiorum has been printed over the top of Turner's watercolour. Turner etched some of the plates for this project himself, but it is
not clear why this etching was printed
in this way.

This classical subject was assigned to
the category of historical landscape. In Ovid's Metamorphoses, Aesacus was a young man who was turned into a diving bird in order to thwart his attempts to kill himself for the love of Hesperie.

Gallery label, September 2004

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