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 > Trèves to Cochem and Coblenz to Mayence ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Moselle Valley 1839

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Moselle Valley’ 1839
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 39 Recto:
The Moselle Valley 1839
D28427
Turner Bequest CCXC 39
Pencil on flecked off-white wove paper, 100 x 163 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘Light’ top centre, ‘[?R/B W]’ repeated twice top centre towards right; ‘the [...]’ centre
Inscribed in blue ink by Ruskin ‘39’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CCXC–39’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Here Turner has made three swift panoramic sketches depicting villages on the Moselle. It is difficult to decipher where they were taken as there are no immediately identifiable features. Turner most probably recorded the views as his boat or ferry travelled towards Trier. He has made some annotations around two of the sketches, such as ‘Light’, though the longer inscription is unfortunately largely indecipherable.

Alice Rylance-Watson
July 2013

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘The Moselle Valley 1839 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, July 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-the-moselle-valley-r1150710, accessed 19 April 2024.