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

Drawn with the page turned horizontally, this subject is the only indication that Turner ventured away from the Maas (Meuse) riverfront at Maastricht into the streets of the city, to stand outside the east end of the Sint Janskerk, at the south-west corner of the Vrijthof square. The apsidal east end and flanking towers of the Romanesque Basilica of St Servaas (Serviatus) are just beyond, with the flying buttresses of its south transept on their near side. The end gable of the rusticated Hoofdwacht guardhouse is just beyond, today partly obscured by trees, with the pediment of what is now the Theater aan het Vrijthof in the distance, on the north side of the square.

At the top right is an oblique detail of the upper stages of the typical Romanesque westwork end of the basilica, seen from the south-west with part of the Gothic spire of the Sint Janskerk, presumably observed rather cursorily over its larger neighbour’s roofline. The westwork’s rounded arches are surmounted by somewhat mismatched Baroque pediments, as shown in a watercolour of about 1840 by the local artist Philippe van Gulpen (1792–1862; RHCL, Maastricht); these accretions were stripped back during subsequent restoration. This part of the church is seen in the distance from a similar angle in the contemporary Holland, Meuse and Cologne sketchbook (Tate D19525; Turner Bequest CCXV 74a), complete with its central spire, which was subsequently remodelled and eventually lost. For the various aspects of the city recorded on adjacent pages and in the other book, see under folio 179 verso (D19195).