Joseph Mallord William Turner

This detailed sketch rendered in fine and deliberate line formed the basis of a gouache, pen and ink and watercolour on blue paper study of Dinant from the hillside outside the town walls (Tate D20227; Turner Bequest CCXX T). The eleventh–century citadel, built to defend the Meuse valley and later rebuilt in 1820 during the Dutch occupation, can be seen at the right and, beneath it, the Collegiate Church of Notre-Dame, conspicuous by its celebrated onion dome and lantern.

For other views of Dinant in this sketchbook see Tate D28122, D28125, D28142, D28147, D28153, D28155–D28158, D28160–D28166, D41091; Turner Bequest CCLXXXVII 42a, 44a, 53, 56a, 59a, 60a–62a, 63a–66a. There are also further colour sketches of the town produced in gouache on blue paper between 1834–9, some with pen and ink and watercolour added (Tate D20228, D24724, D28984; Turner Bequest CCXX U; CCLIX 159, CCXCII 37). There is also a colour sketch dating between 1825 and 1834 in the Laing Art Gallery at Newcastle-upon-Tyne (Tyne and Wear Museums) and at the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff.1

For earlier views of Dinant see the Rivers Meuse and Moselle sketchbook of 1824 (Tate D19556–D19663; Turner Bequest CCXVI 53a–57) and the Huy and Dinant sketchbook of the same year (Tate D20109–D20113; Turner Bequest CCXVII 16–19).