Description
Hedging and Ditching shows workers tending the ground beside a large bare tree at the left of a rural landscape. Beyond their foreground activity, fields extend toward a brighter sky, giving the scene both a practical focus and a wider prospect. Turner lets the countryside be encountered through the effort of maintaining it as well as through its visible forms.
Published on May 23, 1812, the print combines etching and mezzotint. J. M. W. Turner designed and etched the composition, with J. C. Easling credited as engraver; this is the first of four states. The work draws interest from the relationship between human activity and the land on which it is performed. Its rural setting carries a practical history, allowing the landscape to be understood through maintenance and cultivation as well as through its visible forms.
Read our guide to giclée prints or browse the J. M. W. Turner collection.
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