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 > Givet, Mézières, Verdun, Metz, Luxemburg ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Trier from across the Moselle near the White House; The River, Walls and Towers of Trier with its Cranes and Bridge, Looking up the Moselle; Trier 1839

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Trier from across the Moselle near the White House; The River, Walls and Towers of Trier with its Cranes and Bridge, Looking up the Moselle; Trier’ 1839
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 54 Verso:
Trier from across the Moselle near the White House; The River, Walls and Towers of Trier with its Cranes and Bridge, Looking up the Moselle; Trier 1839
D28263
Turner Bequest CCLXXXVIII 54 a
Pencil on cream laid writing paper, 168 x 101 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘?Villa’ top towards left; ‘8’ (inverted) at centre left
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This panoramic sketch, running across the upper register and continuing on the folio opposite (Tate D28264; Turner Bequest CCLXXXVIII 55), depicts Trier from Pallien near the White House, a building also seen on folio 49 verso (Tate D28255; Turner Bequest CCLXXXVIII 49 a). Below is a further sketch of the ancient city which similarly extends onto the folio opposite. In it, Turner pictures the Moselle surrounded at either side by a number of towered buildings, fortified walls, cranes and the bridge.
The sketches on the lower register have been drawn with the book turned upside down and continue onto the opposite folio. The penultimate drawing from rear depicts the bridge at Trier, the number of its arches recorded by Turner in the inscribed figure ‘8’. Beyond the bridge can be seen a mill, fortified walls, and the city itself with its panoply of ecclesiastical and historical buildings. The content of the final sketch is rather less decipherable; the loose scalloped lines probably represent trees or foliage beyond which is a ditch and what appears to be a fortified wall and gatehouse on the opposite folio.
Technical notes:
The bottom left corner of the page is torn off.

Alice Rylance-Watson
May 2013

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Trier from across the Moselle near the White House; The River, Walls and Towers of Trier with its Cranes and Bridge, Looking up the Moselle; Trier 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-trier-from-across-the-moselle-near-the-white-house-the-river-r1150540, accessed 25 April 2024.