'Dinant, on the Meuse, from the South', Joseph Mallord William Turner

Artwork details

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775‑1851)

Title

Dinant, on the Meuse, from the South

Date c.1839

MediumGouache and watercolour on paper

Dimensionssupport: 139 x 192 mm

Collection

Tate

Acquisition Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

Reference

D24724

Turner Bequest CCLIX 159

View this artwork by appointment, at Tate Britain's Prints and Drawings Rooms

Display caption

Turner is unlikely to have coloured these views of Dinant on the spot. Yet, as other examples in this display also demonstrate, he often made a number of colour studies of a site from much the same viewpoint, transforming the basic scene by varying the type of light falling over it. On this occasion his studies seem to have been undertaken to explore the way sunset light transforms how the eye perceives the colours of shadows. The use of the deep mauve unifies the silhouetted form of the rock and fortress above Dinant. A fuller investigation of this phenomenon was undertaken by the Impressionists somewhat later in the century.

August 2004