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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Seven Sketches of the Meuse and its Rocks at and near Samson 1824

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 266 Verso:
Seven Sketches of the Meuse and its Rocks at and near Samson 1824
D20058
Turner Bequest CCXVI 259
Pencil on white wove paper, 118 x 78 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘Samson’ ascending, ‘Inn at Samson’ top left; ‘Going on board the Packet | at Samson’ centre towards bottom right; ‘On board the Packet vessel from Samson’ bottom right
Inscribed in blue ink by Ruskin ‘259’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CCXVI–259’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This series of diminutive and intricately rendered views show the Meuse at and near the village of Samson, Belgium. Turner makes note of the ‘Inn at Samson’ at the uppermost register, and records figures and fishermen on the banks of the river. In the two rear sketches the artist inscribes: ‘Going on board the Packet at Samson’ and ‘On board the Packet vessel from Samson’, drawing sketches of the views from the boat as he sailed away. See Tate D19641–D19649, D20057, D20060; Turner Bequest CCXVI 46–50, 258a, 260, for more drawings of the Meuse and rocks near Samson and Namur.
This leaf was removed from its sketchbook by John Ruskin for display at the National Gallery, London between 1857 and 1858.1 It was then exhibited at various points until at least 1904, which accounts for the discolouration of the paper and fading of the pencil. The leaf was rebound into the sketchbook as a verso; the recto is Tate D20059; Turner Bequest CCXVI 259a.

Alice Rylance-Watson
June 2014

1
Warrell 1995, pp.27–8.

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Seven Sketches of the Meuse and its Rocks at and near Samson 1824 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 2014, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2015, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-seven-sketches-of-the-meuse-and-its-rocks-at-and-near-samson-r1174854, accessed 29 March 2024.