J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > The Second Meuse-Moselle Tour 1839 > Spa, Dinant and Namur Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Marché de Theux, the Castle of Franchimont and the Bridge over the Hoëgne, from its West Bank 1839

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Marché de Theux, the Castle of Franchimont and the Bridge over the Hoëgne, from its West Bank’ 1839
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 29 Recto:
Marché de Theux, the Castle of Franchimont and the Bridge over the Hoëgne, from its West Bank 1839
D28097
Turner Bequest CCLXXXVII 29
Pencil on white wove writing paper, 94 x 154 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘350’ bottom right and ‘29’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CCLXXXVII–29’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The ruins of the medieval Castle of Franchimont preside loftily over the village of Marché near Theux in Turner’s sketch, the artist drawing the uppermost reaches of the monument on the folio opposite (Tate D28096; Turner Bequest 28a). The castle, built solidly into the face of a high rocky outcrop, was described by the Scottish publisher William Chambers as the ‘principal object demanding attention’ on his route from nearby Pepinsterre: it was ‘the ancient residence of the marquises of that name [Franchimont], whose rights ultimately merged in the prince-bishops of Liège’.1
The square tower of the basilica of Saints Hermes and Alexander can be seen towards the left of the townscape amongst the layered array of houses and buildings. An arched bridge, the Pont de Marché, can be seen traversing the river Hoëgne at the right.
This sketch and three other loose sheets (Tate D20312–D20313, D20383; Turner Bequest CCXXIV 22–3, 87) are believed to have formed the basis of a gouache, pen and ink and watercolour drawing on blue paper of Franchimont (Tate D20289; Turner Bequest CCXXIII D).2 Other drawings of Theux in this sketchbook can be found on the following folios: Tate D28095–D28096, D28098; Turner Bequest CCLXXXVII 28–28a, 30.
1
William Chambers, A Tour in Switzerland in 1841, London 1842, p.8.
2
Powell 1991, p.167, no.110.
Verso:
Blank

Alice Rylance-Watson
April 2013

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Marché de Theux, the Castle of Franchimont and the Bridge over the Hoëgne, from its West Bank 1839 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-marche-de-theux-the-castle-of-franchimont-and-the-bridge-r1150371, accessed 26 April 2024.