The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-05-17
THE LIBER STUDIORUM.

The London AHteRu1t,R says:-
We have been asked for further exposition
of the history and characteristics of the series of
impressions from the plates of the "Liber Stud-
orum,n purchased from Mr. John Pye for the
Print Room, British Museum. This is not an
occasion for an essay, but it may serve to eX-
plain certain parts of the history of this famous
work if we recall some of the Incidents which
attended its appearance. 1t must be remem-
bered that the point of the history distinctly
indicates the absence of patronage for or even
understanding of art, not pOrtraiture, in the
country at the beginning of this century The
history of the failure of the 'Liber' shows this,
briefly thus:--Tumcr. about 1906. commenced
series of designs. for such they were,
in illustration of the more recon-
dite principles of chiar-Oscuro-a term which,
as we need hardly explain, means great deal
more than the words Eight and shaden-and
composition. He chose landscape and its cog
nate architectural and marine themes MS expo
nents of his aims and lessons. He might
equally well, had it suited him, have employed
figures for this purpose, other potent char
oscurists had done; in some respects, however
the art of the master could I've better shown
by themes which were less likely than incidents
of human life to divert the mind of the OBJ
server from the design to the mere subject of
a composition, and Turner wanted to show art
not to produce Il series of illustrations, histori-
cal, typographical, and other To express
sentiment in landscape was among his
chief aims. In this sense of his pur-
pose, solitude, one of the ''Liber"
designs, is poem drawn ON paper; so are
its fellows, "The River Wye.' .London from
Greenwich, and the rest. With this aspect of
the subject however, we have little here to
do. Turner divided his texts" into classes and
proposed to publish one hundred examples, in
twenty parts, which were to be periodically
issued, and to comprise five plates each Apart
from the details OF publication, which were OF
no well-promsing chaaacter Turner's plan ORR
ginally was to make drawings in Sepia for the
guidance of the mezZotint engravers. The
majority of the drawings thus made are now ut
South Kensington; these have been photo
graphed some of them, as usual, with remark
able fortune, others with as remarkable i'll luck
The best of the copies are, as eXponents of COM
position, and, occasionally, of sentiment, nearly
as good as the originals. of extraordinary value
and commendable to poor students because they
can be got for shilling apiece. Others are un-
mitigated rubbish Probably more uniform re-
suits might be obtained on rephotographing
these drawings
The best of these drawings however, and still
more the photographs from them, are extremely
inferior to impressions Of the plates which, after
the designer had etched the outlines, the several
engravers prepared; also to the eleven "Libers'
which Turner wrought with his own hands from
first TO last. Among Mr.. Pyle's collection are
several which bear the touches of paint placed
by the artist in directing the engrayer. 1t was
found that the copper plates on which the sub
jects of the work had been mezzOtinted failed,
so eXquisitely delicate was the engraving, TO
produce more than from twenty 10 thirty fine
impressions. Turner himself, therefore, in order
to carry on the work executed from time to
time all the needful reparations upon the copper
plates; and thus impressions were obtained
which constituted a series of 'Liber" prints
distinguished among amateurs as impressions
of the plates in their second" and third"
states of repair. These Estates" are conse-
quently of less value than impressions which
were taken from the plates in their original
condition Yet apart from composition and
sentiment, being results of the artists genius
foo, I.l..a g,T IL
these Estates are valuable and extraordinarily
so when as in the fOlios of Mr.. Pye II conside-
rable number of them are brought side by side
with impressions from the plates originally
mezzotinted. One Of the grounds upon which
the interest of the late purchase for the Trustees
of the British Museum rests is, that we have
now opportunity for collectively studying most
OF the subjects of the original work under the
influence of changes which are wrought upon
the plates, and produced what may be called
Effects No. g" "NO g." and sometimes ''No.
o.. Even collection of original impression eX-
hibits effect No. 1 only.
The change and general decadeuee of the
prints as they came from plates which had been
more or less frequently wrought upon are illus
tated In very striking manner in the British
Museum collection. Although such changes,
which constituted the successive Estates" of the
prints were not invariably injurious, it is rare
indeed 10 note an Improvement in the progress
from state to "state; in u few instances state
! no. . Is better than state No. OF q certain
II''N hDNCl' W our kllONlCugG, Is u sltIC No
| plate.
lhe history and extent of the changes made
IN the plates have been given with strange exag-
! SeIalloh and a few errors, but il would be hard
TO eNaggerate the difficulties not only of the ar
tlst ana MS engrayers, but of the very subscri-
Oers to this extraordinary publication. The
! price was raised very considerably on the ap-
| pearance OF the second part. The parts appeared
after no regular intervals; long periods elapsed
between several of the issues, and nobody knew
when one would be followed by another. Tur-
ner, or some one whom he could trust sorted
/ out the impressions in such a fashion that what
was conceived to be near approach to equality
of value was obtained for the respective parts rs
they were issued TO individual subscribers, no
single part consisted wholly of OriqindL impres-
sions; parts were made up with impressions of
! No Is and No. IS, and rough kind of ms
! tice seems to have been DONE
Turner published for ready money only.
those who failed to make up their sets in d1e
order by paying for them experienced the in
convenience of having broken SETS The issue
went on i'm this odd way until il entirely failed;
the last part appeared in 1920, or fourteen years
after the first; the fourth part was enriched by
an exquisite frontispiece which the artist pre-
sented TO his followers. There are thus seventy
4 A. e..