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 Three Sketches of Rocks and Villages on the Meuse near Namur 1839

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Three Sketches of Rocks and Villages on the Meuse near Namur’ 1839
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 47 Recto:
Three Sketches of Rocks and Villages on the Meuse near Namur 1839
D28130
Turner Bequest CCLXXXVII 47
Pencil on white wove writing paper, 154 x 94 mm
Watermarked ‘[F]ellows | ‘[181]0’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Marche le Dame’ at centre towards left
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘350’ bottom right and ‘47’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CCLXXXVII–47’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
In these three sketches, Turner depicts the dramatic bluffs, rock formations and ranges surrounding the banks of the Meuse close to Namur. Each drawing is orientated inversely relative to the foliation. Rendered with rough and swift line, the sketches are arranged on the upper, middle and lower registers of the page. The uppermost drawing is inscribed by Turner with ‘Marche-les-Dames’, a town which neighbours Namur, and continues onto the lower register of the folio opposite (Tate D28129; Turner Bequest CCLXXVII 46a).
These pencil sketches and similar ones on the opposite folio are the basis for a gouache and watercolour drawing on blue paper of the Rocks on the Meuse at Marche-les-Dames (Tate D20262; Turner Bequest CCXXII C).

Alice Rylance-Watson
May 2013

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Three Sketches of Rocks and Villages on the Meuse near Namur 1839 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 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-three-sketches-of-rocks-and-villages-on-the-meuse-near-namur-r1150404, accessed 26 April 2024.