J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

With the page turned horizontally, this rapidly rendered sketch shows Maastricht to the north, with the ramparts of Fort Sint Pieter, built around 1700 high on its limestone plateau,1 in the foreground above the old Liège road, the Luikerweg. The city is shown across what was then open ground (now largely covered with buildings and trees), with the Basilica of St Servaas (Servatius) and the adjacent spire of the Sint Janskerk near the centre, and what may be the twin turrets of the Basilica of Our Lady, near the south-eastern corner of the city walls towards the right. Similar prospects remain obtainable from nearby, although the road is now lined with trees on the near side of the fortress.

Fort Sint Pieter is shown from further off on folios 179 verso, 182 verso opposite and 184 recto (D19195, D19201, D19204), and likely again on folio 187 recto (D19210). There are also detailed variations on the present view in the contemporary Holland, Meuse and Cologne sketchbook (Tate D19436–D19438; Turner Bequest CCXV 20a–21, 21a). Compare a complementary distant view over the city from the north on folio 182 recto (D19200), and for various other aspects recorded on adjacent pages and in the other sketchbook, see under D19195.