Joseph Mallord William Turner

Rocks on the Meuse

c.1839

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In Tate Britain

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Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Meuse-Moselle Gouache and Watercolour Drawings
Medium
Gouache and watercolour on paper
Dimensions
Support: 140 × 190 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D24736
Turner Bequest CCLIX 171

Catalogue entry

This drawing depicts some of the precipitous limestone cliffs of the Meuse valley, though the exact location is unknown. Rendered in earthy hues of sienna brown, copper, sand, buff, and mauve with sparing smudges of blue for the sky, Turner has also reproduced the ‘perpendicular markings’ or geological striations, which are a ‘special feature’ of these Mosan cliffs.1
1
Cecilia Powell, Turner’s Rivers of Europe: The Rhine, Meuse and Mosel, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1991, p.157 no.92.
Verso:
Inscribed in pencil ‘CCLIX 171’ bottom right.

Alice Rylance-Watson
June 2013

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