River Wye

This print, 'River Wye', is plate 48 of Turner's 'Liber Studiorum' series. It is an example of the Elevated (or Epic) Pastoral category of landscape painting. It was published with the 10th part of the series on 23 May 1812. The 'Liber Studiorum' illustrated Turner’s arguments for the supremacy of landscape painting. The title means ‘book of studies’ in Latin. It contained no written text, instead it was made up of individual mezzotint prints on paper. They were released in fourteen parts from around 1807 until 1819. Turner intended the 'Liber' to consist of 100 prints but only 71 were ultimately produced. The prints reflected the five categories of landscape painting Turner believed existed: architectural, historical, marine, mountainous and pastoral. Turner wrote an initial on each work to indicate which category it belonged to.