Joseph Mallord William Turner

Rendered with swift agile line, this sketch depicts two of the plateaux of Luxembourg: the Grünewald and the Rocher du Bock, with the northern stretch of the narrow Alzette valley below. Towards the centre, the castle of the Bock is visible followed by the two-storey arched Pont du Château and the Ville Haute with the Church of St Michael. Towards the foreground at right Turner has suggested some of the architecture of the French military engineer Vauban’s fortified towers. This sketch and those on folios 64 verso to 67 recto (Tate D28282–D28287; Turner Bequest CCLXXXVIII 64a–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).