Joseph Mallord William Turner

Luxembourg with the Outer Porte de Thionville in the Foreground; Luxembourg from the South

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: Givet, Mézières, Verdun, Metz, Luxemburg and Trèves Sketchbook
Medium: Graphite on paper
Dimensions: Support: 101 × 168 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D28231
Turner Bequest CCLXXXVIII 34

Catalogue entry

The principal drawing depicts the Porte de Thionville, a fortified gate at Luxembourg city, with the Alzette valley and fortifications on the Rham plateau beyond. The sketch is a preparatory work for a gouache, pen and ink and watercolour drawing on blue paper of around the same date (Tate D20270; Turner Bequest CCXXII K).

Turner has drawn a rough silhouette of Luxembourg from a southerly axis towards the gutter of the sketchbook, drawn inversely to the principal view.

For other sketches of Luxembourg in this book see Tate D28228–D28230, D28266–D28288; Turner Bequest CCLXXXVIII 32a–33a, 56a–67a. See also the earlier Rivers Meuse and Moselle sketchbook of 1824 (Tate D19712, D19714; Turner Bequest CCXVI 82, 83). For colour drawings of Luxembourg see Tate D20220, D20244–D20249, D20258, D20264, D20272–D20273, D20284, D24742; Turner Bequest CCXX M, CCXXI K–N, CCXXII O, CCXXI P, CCXXI Y, CCXXII E, CCXXII M, CCXXII N, CCXXII Y, CCLIX 177; N05240.

Technical notes:

The page is creased in a number of areas; the top left of the page has folded in by about five millimeters.

Alice Rylance-Watson
May 2013

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