Joseph Mallord William Turner

To draw this sketch Turner stood on what is now called the Boulevard d’Avroy at Liège. The Baroque building on the right is the Abbaye de la Paix Notre-Dame, a Benedictine convent constructed between 1687 and 1690 to the plans of Sister Aldegonde Desmoulins.1 Towards the middle distance the striking onion dome of St Andrew’s Church can be seen. The current building was designed by the Liégeois architect J.B. Renoz and completed in 1772, though a church belonging to the order of Teutonic Knights has existed on this site since the thirteenth century.2 St Andrew’s is recorded by Turner in two other sketches: Tate D29673; Turner Bequest CCXCVI 39a and from a distance in Tate D19446; Turner Bequest CCXV 25a. The tower with cupola seen to the immediate right of the St Andrew’s Church in this drawing is also depicted in the latter of these sketches.

This view is continued on Tate D20102; Turner Bequest CCXVII 11a.