Joseph Mallord William Turner

The Grünewald, Bock and Luxembourg City from the North, beyond the Vauban Towers

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 x 168 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D28283
Turner Bequest CCLXXXVIII 65

Catalogue entry

Looking beyond the bridge over the Alzette River and the the French military engineer Vauban’s towers (visible in the foreground), Turner’s rough sketch of Luxembourg depicts the Grünewald at left, the Bock and the city at right with its manifold buildings, churches and fortifications. This sketch and others (Tate D28281, D28283–D28287; Turner Bequest CCLXXXVIII 64, 65–67) formed the basis of a gouache and watercolour drawing taken on blue paper in around 1839.1
For other sketches of Luxembourg in this book see Tate D28228–D28231, D28266–D28280; Turner Bequest CCLXXXVIII 32a–34, 56a–63a. See also the earlier Rivers Meuse and Moselle sketchbook of 1824 (Tate D19712, D19714; Turner Bequest CCXVI 82, 83).

Alice Rylance-Watson
May 2013

1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.421 no.1022.

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