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 34 Verso:
Spa from the Hillside 1839
D28107
Turner Bequest CCLXXXVII 34 a
Pencil on white wove writing paper, 94 x 154 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘2’ | ‘wo’
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
In this rough and swiftly rendered line drawing Turner has depicted the town of Spa situated in a valley in the Ardennes mountain chain. The artist has made a quick record of the topography, annotating the sketch with the letters ‘wo’, a shortening of ‘wood’. The townscape is in basic linear profile. There appears to be a building with trees at the top left of the page which Turner has labelled with a number ‘2’. This sketch is probably separate from the principal drawing of Spa.
For other views of Spa in this sketchbook see Tate D28078, D28082–D28083, D28086–D28092, D28108–D28116; Turner Bequest CCLXXXVII 19, 21–21a, 23–26, 35–39a.
Technical notes:
There has been some transference of Turner’s inscription from the folio opposite (Tate D28108; Turner Bequest CCLXXXVII 35) close to the gutter of the sketchbook.

Alice Rylance-Watson
May 2013

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Spa from the Hillside 1839 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 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-r1150381, accessed 21 September 2024.