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

This is a rough and swiftly rendered sketch of the ancient Roman bridge at Trier, looking upstream on the Moselle. Turner has inscribed the number ‘7’ and an illegible word next to it close to the arches of the bridge; this is likely a similar annotation to the one found on folio 19 recto (Tate D28203; Turner Bequest CCLXXXVIII 19). There are three parts to this view: each part running along the middle, upper and lower registers to produce what is in effect one long panoramic view.

For further depictions of Trier in this sketchbook see Tate D28186, D28203, D28207, D28244, D28246, D28249, D28250, D28256, D28258–D28260, D28263, D28264; Turner Bequest CCLXXXVIII 10a, 19, 21, 42a, 43a, 45a, 46, 50, 51–52, 54a, 55). The city is also depicted in earlier sketchbooks associated with Turner’s 1824 tour of the region; see the Rivers Meuse and Moselle sketchbook (Tate D19725, D19726, D19728–D19730, D19732–D19743; Turner Bequest CCLXXXVIII 88a, 89, 90–91, 92–97a; the Huy and Dinant sketchbook (Tate D20091, D20111, D20115; Turner Bequest CCXVII 5, 17a, 21; the Trèves and Rhine sketchbook (Tate D20141, D20142, D20145, D20146, D20148, D20149–D20154; Turner Bequest CCXVIII 3, 4, 7, 8, 10, 11–16. See also two gouache and watercolour drawings of the city: one of the Porta Nigra (Tate D20230; Turner Bequest CCXX W) and the other of Trier from the west (Tate D24715; Turner Bequest CCLIX 150).