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

Here Turner records the Belgian city of ‘Bruxelle’ (Brussels). There are tall trees at left, rendered in loose scalloped line, and beyond what appear to be fortified walls and a tower. This architecture may have been part of the network of medieval city walls constructed in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The artist stayed at Brussels on 12 August 1824, at the very beginning of his tour, and on 5 September, towards the end of it. See also Tate D20067, D20069–D20072; Turner Bequest CCXVI 263a, 264a–266.