Etching, mezzotint and aquatint (?). This image relates (in reverse) to Turner's monochrome watercolour drawing 'Moonlight at Sea (The Needles)' of about 1818, which is item D08176 in the Turner collection at Tate Britain, having been bequeathed by Henry Vaughan in 1900 (Vaughan Bequest CXVIII V). It is also more distantly related to his 'Fishermen at Sea' (exh. RA, 1796), which was his first exhibited oil painting and is also in the Turner Bequest at Tate Britain. The watercolour was engraved in aquatint for potential inclusion in Turner's 'Liber Studiorum' series, probably by himself with possible assistance from Henry Dawe, who subsequently owned the drawing for some time. However, it was never published from that plate, although the British Museum holds two different proof-state impressions printed from it. This image comes from a second plate, presumed to have been experimentally attempted by Turner himself in the early 1820s, though whether before or after the other is unclear: from this a few impressions were taken long after his death when the copper plate was in possession of Charles Mallord William Turner (1859-1934, a great-grandson of John Turner, the artist's uncle). He gave one of them to the British Museum in 1906 (BM 1906,0419.104.+) and the Tate also holds one (Tate A01154), which was presented to it via the Art Fund (NACF) in 1925. This impression was purchased by the Museum from Colnaghi's, the London dealer, in 1975. There are no known impressions made from the plate by Turner himself probably because, as W.G. Rawlinson concluded in 1906, he recognized it as effectively 'ruined' in the making, as far as it got. While the plate probably survives, its whereabouts are not now clear. For the best discussion of the matter see the online cataloguing of the Tate watercolour (D08176) and the related references provided there. In all the impressions, only the boat is clear against sea and sky, without any trace of the Needles as seen in the related drawing.