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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Luxembourg from the Bourbon Plateau c.1839

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Luxembourg from the Bourbon Plateau c.1839
D20264
Turner Bequest CCXXII E
Gouache, pen and ink and watercolour on blue wove paper, 141 x 188 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCXXII E’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This view of Luxembourg from the Bourbon plateau was produced from ‘a fusion of memory and imagination’, according to Cecilia Powell.1 The foreground, for example, features an invented fortification with openings to a warren of underground tunnels.2 The topography beyond incorporates the city’s fortified Bock and Rham plateaux with the citadel of Saint-Esprit.
In contrast to Tate D20284; Turner Bequest CCXXII Y, the viewpoint here is much closer to the city. The palette employed to render both drawings is similar, however, both being comprised of muted, earthy tones of green, ochre and mauve.
1
Powell 1991, p.174 no.120.
2
Ibid.
Verso:
Stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram and ‘CCXXII–E’ at bottom left; inscribed in pencil ‘CCXXII E’ at bottom right.

Alice Rylance-Watson
June 2013

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Luxembourg from the Bourbon Plateau c.1839 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-luxembourg-from-the-bourbon-plateau-r1150970, accessed 26 April 2024.