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 > Meuse-Moselle Gouache and Watercolour ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner View up the Alzette Valley, Luxembourg, with the Fortifications of the Rham Plateau c.1839

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘View up the Alzette Valley, Luxembourg, with the Fortifications of the Rham Plateau’ c.1839
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
View up the Alzette Valley, Luxembourg, with the Fortifications of the Rham Plateau c.1839
D20270
Turner Bequest CCXXII K
Gouache, pen and ink and watercolour on blue wove paper, 138 x 192 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCXXII K’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
In this drawing Turner depicts the Rham Plateau at Luxembourg from the westerly vantage point, looking back eastwards along the Alzette valley past the Porte de Thionville. The palette is muted: comprised of earthy tones of ochre, moss green, teal and grey, and is similar to Tate D20272; Turner Bequest CCXXII M.
A deep rust-red ink is used and applied with hairline strokes of the pen to render the fissures and crags of the plateau and to delineate the fortifications and architecture of the city.
The composition is close to a rough pencil drawing in the Givet, Mézières, Verdun, Metz, Luxemburg and Trèves sketchbook of c.1839 (Tate D28231; Turner Bequest CCLXXXVIII 34).
Technical notes:
There is some foxing on the verso of the drawing.
Verso:
Inscribed in pencil ‘7’ centre towards right; stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram and ‘CCXXII–K’ at bottom left.

Alice Rylance-Watson
June 2013

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘View up the Alzette Valley, Luxembourg, with the Fortifications of the Rham Plateau c.1839 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 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-view-up-the-alzette-valley-luxembourg-with-the-r1150975, accessed 23 April 2024.