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 > Meuse-Moselle Gouache and Watercolour ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Place Royale, Spa, from the Entrance to the 'Promenade de Sept-Heures' c.1839

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Place Royale, Spa, from the Entrance to the 'Promenade de Sept-Heures'’ c.1839
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
The Place Royale, Spa, from the Entrance to the ‘Promenade de Sept-Heures’ c.1839
D24788
Turner Bequest CCLIX 223
Gouache, pen and ink and watercolour on blue wove paper, 140 x 189 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCLIX 223’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Although this drawing does not possess the rich, multi-tonal colour range of other Meuse-Moselle gouaches, the rendering of this avenue of elm trees at Spa, the Promenade de Sept-Heures, is certainly striking. Over fine, fluid, and tapering strokes of pen and ink line, Turner has highlighted the trees with gold and ochre gouache to evoke the shimmering fall of evening sunlight. The view beyond, drawn swiftly in pen and ink, depicts Spa’s main square or Place Royale. A horse-drawn carriage crosses the square and a busy street can be seen winding away from it. The silhouette of the spire of the Church of Saint-Rémacle is drawn, but its body is left unpainted.
Turner based this colour drawing on pencil sketch in the Spa, Dinant and Namur sketchbook of the same date (Tate D28110; Turner Bequest CCLXXXVII 36). See also the gouache of the Promenade de Sept-Heures (Tate D24753; Turner Bequest CCLIX 188).
Verso:
Stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram and ‘CCLIX 223’ bottom right.

Alice Rylance-Watson
June 2013

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘The Place Royale, Spa, from the Entrance to the ‘Promenade de Sept-Heures’ 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-place-royale-spa-from-the-entrance-to-the-promenade-de-r1151014, accessed 27 April 2024.