Liber Studiorum

File:Little Devil's Bridge over the Russ, above Altdorft, Swiss-d, from Liber Studiorum, part IV.jpg

Little Devil's Bridge over the Russ, above Altdorft, Swiss-d, from Liber Studiorum, part IV. This version is currently in the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Liber Studiorum (Latin: Book of Studies ) is a collection of prints by J.M.W. Turner. The collected works included seventy-one prints that he worked on and printed from 1807 to 1819. For the production of the prints, Turner created the etchings for the prints, which were worked in mezzotint by his collaborating engravers. The original drawings were developed in sepia and are now owned by the National Gallery. Subsequent the initial printing, the late 19th, early 20th century artist Frank Short made successful reprintings with the plates, though many of the finer details had worn down.

File:Near Blair Athol, Scotland, from Liber Studiorum, part VI.jpg

Near Blair Athol, Scotland, from Liber Studiorum, part VI. This copy is currently in the Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Liber Studiorum was an expression of his intentions for landscape art. Loosely based on Claude Lorrain's Liber Veritatis (Book of Truth); the plates were meant to be widely disseminated, and categorised the genre into six types: Marine, Mountainous, Pastoral, Historical, Architectural, and Elevated or Epic Pastoral. A museum is devoted to Turner's printwork, the Turner Museum in Sarasota, Florida, founded in 1974 by Douglass Montrose-Graem to house his collection of Turner prints. Additional collections of the prints are held at the Tate Gallery, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and The Art Institute of Chicago.