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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Bock, Luxembourg c.1839

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
The Bock, Luxembourg c.1839
D20285
Turner Bequest CCXXII Z
Gouache, pen and ink and watercolour on blue wove paper, 137 x 188 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCXXII–Z’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
In this drawing Turner pictures the Bock, one of the three fortified plateaux which dominate Luxembourg City. Turner’s vantage point is elevated, and on an easterly axis. The composition is derived from a number of pencil sketches in the Givet, Mézières, Verdun, Metz, Luxemburg and Trèves sketchbook of 1839 (Tate D28267–D28269, D28272, D28273; Turner Bequest CCLXXXVIII 57–58, 59a, 60). See also Tate D20273; Turner Bequest CCXXII N for a similar picture of the Bock.
For other of Turner’s 1839 gouaches of Luxembourg see Tate D20244–D20249, D20264, D20270, D20272, D20284, N05240; Turner Bequest CCXXI K–CCXXI P, CCXXII E, CCXXII K, CCXXII M, CCXXII Y.
Verso:
Inscribed in white chalk or gouache ‘9’ towards top right; inscribed in pencil ’26 l’ centre towards top and ‘CCXXII Z’ at bottom centre; stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram bottom left.

Alice Rylance-Watson
June 2013

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘The Bock, Luxembourg c.1839 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 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-bock-luxembourg-r1150984, accessed 28 March 2024.