Joseph Mallord William Turner

Drawing from a boat, here Turner records a view of the confluence of the Meuse and Sambre Rivers at Namur, similar to those depicted on Tate D20104–D20105, D20106; Turner Bequest CCXVII 12a–13, 14. Turner is the furthest away from the citadel and promontory here, and subsequently able to take a wider angled view of Namur’s topography. At left are steps leading up to buildings from the river’s edge. At right is the Hospice d’Harscamp, a place of respite for the sick and elderly endowed by one of Namur’s wealthiest aristocratic families. At top right Turner has drawn a small detail of an eighteenth-century church belonging to the Hospice, the église Notre-Dame d’Harscamp, on the rue Saint-Nicolas.1 Beneath this detail are the inscriptions: ‘Brick | Cornice Windows’.2

Verso:

There is the very briefest continuation of the view on Tate D20109; Turner Bequest CCXVII 16.