From Spenser's Fairy Queen
From Spenser's Fairy Queen

Currently not on view

From Spenser's Fairy Queen,

1811

Joseph Mallord William Turner, English, 1775–1851
Engraved by Thomas Hodgetts, British, 1763 - 1823
x1937-614
Published between 1809 and 1819, Turner’s Liber Studiorum (Book of Studies) consists of seventy prints, many made in collaboration with professional engravers, that disseminated the artist’s ideas about landscape art to broader audiences. The subject of this “historical landscape” is taken from Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene, published in the 1590s. In this poem, Spenser describes “old stockes and stubs of trees” and “the ragged rocky knees” of the landscape that surrounds the Cave of Despair. Some scholars have interpreted the flagging Redcrosse Knight, shown here in the foreground, as a metaphor for Britain during the Napoleonic Wars, as he would soon recover enough to slay a dragon.

Information

Title
From Spenser's Fairy Queen
Dates

1811

Maker
Joseph Mallord William Turner
Medium

Etching, mezzotint and engraving

Dimensions

plate: 20.9 x 29 cm (8 1/4 x 11 7/16 in.)
sheet: 28.1 x 41.8 cm (11 1/16 x 16 7/16 in.)

Credit Line

Museum purchase

Object Number
x1937-614
Inscription

Drawn & Etched by J.M.W. Turner Esq. R.A. Engraved by T. Hodgetts From SPENCER'S FAIRY QUEEN Published June 1811 by J.M.W. Turner Queen Ann Street West

Culture
European
Type
prints

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