John Clerk of Eldin (1728–1812) was one of many remarkable figures who emerged from 18th-century Scotland during the Age of Enlightenment. Living and working within the intellectual circles of Edinburgh, he was connected with a number of leading contemporaries in art, science, and philosophy. Among his most enduring achievements is a remarkable body of more than one hundred landscape etchings produced between about 1770 and 1778–79.

Clerk travelled widely with sketchbook in hand, recording castles, ruins, and landscapes across Scotland. Encouraged by his “virtuosi” friends, he began to translate these drawings into etchings, teaching himself the technique at a time when the medium was little used by Scottish artists.

The resulting prints combine careful observation with a picturesque sensibility and reflect a growing appreciation of Scotland’s historic landscape during the later eighteenth century. Together they form an important visual record of the country’s architecture and scenery at a moment when interest in Scotland’s past and its landscapes was rapidly increasing.

Below is the first display of every landscape etching by John Clerk of Eldin collated in one place. Although there are significant collections of Clerk’s etchings in public institutions, such as The British Museum and National Galleries of Scotland, no collection contains every single print. Regarding the layout, the etchings are listed in the order as outlined in my book The Etchings of John Clerk of Eldin which contained a catalogue raisonné. The catalogue attempted to list the prints in a chronological order though at the time of printing in 2012 I had not re-found eight of the etchings confirmed in my original thesis of 1978. It was not possible therefore to include their images in the book. The eight prints are B3, B5, B6, B8, B14, B15, B16, B25. In light of these having been located subsequently I am pleased to insert these now. However, their inclusion reveals that I made wrong assumptions in my numbering system and that if it remains my aim to show the collection chronologically this will need to be addressed. Nonetheless, to avoid confusion with the 2012 listing in my book, I have not made any amendments here.

A word on sizing. The images here are set to provide the viewer with a general sense of the print’s scale. Several of Clerk’s plates are extremely small, particularly the early ones, with some no larger than postage stamps. As his etching technique improved, so did the size of the plates, though few can be said to be overly large.