Joseph Mallord William Turner

Huy from the South-East

c.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
Meuse-Moselle Gouache and Watercolour Drawings
Medium
Gouache, pen and ink and watercolour on paper
Dimensions
Support: 136 × 184 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D20221
Turner Bequest CCXX N

Display caption

The five sketchbooks from this German tour that Turner filled with pencil drawings are evidence of extremely hard work: day after day spent tramping up and down hills in search of good viewpoints and interesting subjects. This watercolour, looking down on to Huy, shows Turner developing one or more of these sketches drawn from vantage points found in this way.

Bodycolour (or gouache, its French name, from the Italian aguazzo – meaning mud) functions a bit like oil paint. Here Turner mixes increasing amounts of white into the pigment to achieve the lighter tones, with pure white for the highest lights.

Gallery label, September 2004

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