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

The drawing was made with the page turned horizontally. Folios 157 verso–162 recto (D19151–D19160) comprise various elevated prospects of Liège from the heights to its north and west, looking over the city and the broad, winding Meuse Valley. Subsequent expansion and redevelopment make the exact viewpoints difficult to establish.

Here, the view appears to be from the vicinity of the Citadel, making it the most easterly of these distant views, looking upriver to the south-east with the main course of the river and various channels around the Outremeuse district at the lower centre, and the spire of the cathedral picked out in the city to the right of centre. There is possibly a small sketch from nearby among the last of the Liège views, on folio 174 verso (D19185). For other views of Liège in this sketchbook and elsewhere, see under folio 155 verso (D19147).