Description
An approaching storm agitates the mountain lake in Turner’s Lake of Thun. A distant lightning strike gives the water a sudden illumination, while foreground figures hurry toward shelter. The scene brings a familiar landscape into a moment of instability, allowing the lake’s open space and the small human responses to register the same change in weather.
Published on June 10, 1808, the print combines etching, drypoint and mezzotint. J. M. W. Turner designed and etched the composition, and Charles Turner engraved and published it; this impression is the first of three states. As a plate in Liber Studiorum, it explores the possibilities of marine landscape beyond an ordinary seacoast. Light becomes the link between sky, water and people, making the distant flash both a visual center and the cause of movement below.
Read our guide to giclée prints, browse the Turner collection, or explore Snow Storm.
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