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 Pallien Looking up the Moselle to the Roman Bridge 1839

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Trier from Pallien Looking up the Moselle to the Roman Bridge’ 1839
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 43 Verso:
Trier from Pallien Looking up the Moselle to the Roman Bridge 1839
D28246
Turner Bequest CCLXXXVIII 43 a
Pencil on cream laid writing paper, 168 x 101 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘6’ at top centre towards right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Rendered with swift and summary line, this sketch depicts the ancient city of Trier and was taken from the neighbouring town of Pallien. The sweeping meander of the Moselle is shown, traversed by the arched Roman bridge or Römerbrücke which dates back to the second century AD.
Other views of Trier in this sketchbook include Tate D28186, D28206, D28207, D28244, D28247, D28249, D28250, D28255, D28256, D28258–D28260, D28263, D28264; Turner Bequest CCLXXXVIII 10a, 20a, 21, 42a, 44, 45a, 46, 49a, 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).
Technical notes:
There is a brown stain at the centre right of the page, close to the gutter of the sketchbook. It has transferred onto the corresponding area of the folio opposite (Tate D28247; Turner Bequest CCLXXXVIII 44).

Alice Rylance-Watson
May 2013

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Trier from Pallien Looking up the Moselle to the Roman Bridge 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-pallien-looking-up-the-moselle-to-the-roman-r1150523, accessed 19 April 2024.