The Farm Yard with the Cock, plate 17 from Liber Studiorum c. 1809

"The Farm Yard with the Cock", plate 17 from "Liber Studiorum" was created by Joseph Mallord William Turner as an etching and mezzotint. Turner, who lived through the industrial revolution, was deeply invested in landscape, often reflecting on the relationship between humanity and the natural world. Here, in this pastoral scene, we are presented with the idealization of rural life, the farm as a site of productivity and harmony. Turner subtly questions this idyll by including laborers near the fence in the background. The print invites us to reflect on class and labor, drawing attention to the unseen hands that sustain such picturesque settings. The animals, particularly the nursing pigs, evoke the cycle of life and the sustenance it provides. Turner seems to be asking, who benefits from this bounty, and at what cost? As you consider this image, perhaps you will be moved to consider how such scenes reflect our own relationship to labor, and the realities of how our resources are produced.