Joseph Mallord William Turner

Luxembourg with Vauba’s Towers on the Plateau of the Rham from the Alzette Valley

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
D28266
Turner Bequest CCLXXXVIII 56 a

Catalogue entry

This pencil sketch is a preparatory work for two 1839 gouache, pen and ink and watercolour drawings depicting the Rham Plateau and the city of Luxembourg from the Alzette valley (Tate D20272, D24742; Turner Bequest CCXXII M, CCLIX 177). With swift, abbreviated line Turner here suggests the rugged and craggy cliffs of the Rham, upon which is situated a complex of towered fortifications designed by the French military engineer Vauban.
For other sketches of Luxembourg in this book see Tate D28228–D28231, D28267–D28288; Turner Bequest CCLXXXVIII 32a–34, 57–67a. See also the earlier Rivers Meuse and Moselle sketchbook of 1824 (Tate D19712, D19714; Turner Bequest CCXVI 82, 83).

Alice Rylance-Watson
May 2013

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