Description
Fishing boats negotiate a stiff breeze and high waves as they approach the fortified entrance of Calais harbor, the city’s skyline visible at the left. J. M. W. Turner gives the marine subject a clear destination without quieting the water around it. The vessels’ movement connects foreground sea with the distant entrance, making arrival a task carried out within the landscape’s active conditions.
Issued in 1816 for Liber Studiorum, the print combines etching, aquatint and mezzotint. Turner developed the tone himself, giving the scene a closely integrated graphic atmosphere. The composition relates to his painting of fishing boats entering Calais harbor, but its printed forms have their own force: vessel, wave and fortified shore share a concentrated arrangement of movement, contrast and the space between them.
Read our guide to giclée prints or browse the J. M. W. Turner collection.
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