The romantic name of Marche-les-Dames (no.91) derives from the foundation of a twelfth-century abbey in an adjacent side-valley by 139 noble ladies who were the widows of Crusaders. Turner has used , lightly applied with a brush, rather than , to show both the characteristic fissures in the oolitic cliffs above the village and all the details of both buildings and the riverside. The resulting criss-cross effect is unusual but the pinkness of his rocks here is similar to that in other scenes on both the Meuse (no.92) and the Mosel (no.49).
Gallery label, August 2004
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