Joseph Mallord William Turner

Distant View of Namur from the Liège Road

1839

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

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Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Spa, Dinant and Namur Sketchbook
Medium
Graphite on paper
Dimensions
Support: 94 × 154 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D28126
Turner Bequest CCLXXXVII 45

Catalogue entry

A slight sketch left largely undeveloped, here Turner represents the town of Namur from the Liège road. The defensive citadel can be seen crowning the heights in the background with the dome of Saint-Aubin Cathedral visible at the far right.
This sketch, two others in this sketchbook (Tate D28123, D28127; Turner Bequest CCLXXXVII 43, 45a) and a loose pencil sketch on blue paper of around 1826 (Tate D20309; Turner Bequest CCXXIV 19) formed the basis of a gouache, pen and ink and watercolour drawing on blue paper of the same view (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge).1 For a similar view in an earlier sketchbook see the Brussels up to Mannheim-Rhine sketchbook of 1833 (Tate D29621, Turner Bequest CCXCVII 13).

Alice Rylance-Watson
May 2013

1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.421 no.1025

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