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

The panoramic two-page view extending across this page and to the right on folio 68 verso opposite (D19514) does not, as Finberg thought, show a ‘Town on [a] coast’,1 but Liège, seen to the north-east down the wide valley of the River Meuse. The precisely rendered alignments of the various churches shown here and on the other page suggests that the isolated group of buildings in the elevated foreground may include the original church of Ste-Véronique, then in largely open countryside east of where the motorway and railway now run, although depictions of it are scarce. The present church is an 1840s Neo-Classical building in the built-up district west of the Parc d’Avroy.

Beyond the lone zig-zag pine tree, the square tower at the centre marks St Martin’s Church, to the north-north-east. The Citadel is on the skyline towards the right above the spire and central dome of St-Jean-en-l’isle and dome of St Andrew’s (St André), to the north-east just short of the gutter. The survey of the city, the winding Meuse and its broad valley continues opposite.

The detailed eastwards panorama on folios 71 verso–72 recto (D19520–D19521) is from not far north, and another spanning folios 23 verso, 24 recto and 24 verso (D19442–D19444) is from north-east of the present one. There are two looser variants, including one from a little to the right, in the contemporary Holland sketchbook (Tate D19160; Turner Bequest CCXV 162). See under folio 23 verso (D19442) for other views of the city in this sketchbook and elsewhere.