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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > The Second Meuse-Moselle Tour 1839 > Spa, Dinant and Namur Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Spa from the Hillside 1839

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Spa from the Hillside’ 1839
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 24 Recto:
Spa from the Hillside 1839
D28088
Turner Bequest CCLXXXVII 24
Pencil on white wove writing paper, 154 x 94 mm
Watermarked ‘[F]ellows’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Lake’ | ‘Corn’
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘350’ bottom right and ‘24’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CCLXXXVII–24’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Taken from a clearing in the hillside, here Turner has drawn a relatively detailed view looking down onto the centre of Spa including the Church of Saint-Rémacle towards the left. A view of the town taken from a slightly different viewpoint is found on the following folio (Tate D28089; Turner Bequest CCLXXXVII 24a).
The handling is comparatively deliberate and precise, Turner taking quite a thorough record of the scene rather than a rough mapping out of the landscape. He has labelled parts of the surrounding topography with the words ‘Lake’ and ‘Corn’: a textual reminder of the landscape should he wish to develop the sketch into a more finished drawing.
For other views of Spa in this sketchbook see Tate D28078, D28082–D28083, D28086–D28087, D28089–D28092, D28107–D28116; Turner Bequest CCLXXXVII 19, 21–21a, 23–23a, 24a–26, 34a–39a.

Alice Rylance-Watson
April 2013

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Spa from the Hillside 1839 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 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-spa-from-the-hillside-r1150362, accessed 25 April 2024.