Joseph Mallord William Turner - Aesacus and Hesperie, plate 66 from Liber Studiorum | Area Rug

J.M.W. Turner's "Liber Studiorum" ("Book of Studies") was an ambitious series of seventy-one prints, issued between 1807 and 1819, in which Turner set out to demonstrate his mastery across every category of landscape — pastoral, historical, mountainous, marine, and architectural. "Aesacus and Hesperie" illustrates an episode from Ovid's Metamorphoses, in which the Trojan prince Aesacus falls in love with the nymph Hesperie and, after her death, is transformed into a diving bird from grief. Turner etched the outlines himself and had them finished in mezzotint, using the series to explore how landscape could carry mythological and emotional weight.

Printed edge to edge on a soft, durable woven area rug with a comfortable, non-slip feel.