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 > Spa, Dinant and Namur Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Distant View of Namur from the Heights of St-Servais; The Meuse from the Hillside 1839

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Distant View of Namur from the Heights of St-Servais; The Meuse from the Hillside’ 1839
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 59 Recto:
Distant View of Namur from the Heights of St-Servais; The Meuse from the Hillside 1839
D28152
Turner Bequest CCLXXXVII 59
Pencil on white wove writing paper, 154 x 94 mm
Inscribed by Turner ‘Sam[bre]’ at bottom centre
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘350’ bottom right and ‘59’ top right; ‘350’ has been struck through with a single pencil line
Stamped in black ‘CCLXXXVII–59’ bottom right
Inscribed in pencil ‘239’ bottom right ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the sketchbook orientated horizontally, here Turner produces two landscape sketches which run parallel to each other. The first, inscribed at bottom right with ‘Sam’ (a shortening of Sambre), depicts the city of Namur from Saint-Servais. Namur, which stands at the confluence of the Sambre and the Meuse, is suggested in the distance with the dome of Saint-Aubin Cathedral visible at centre. For other views of Namur from Saint-Servais in this sketchbook see Tate D28069, D28151–D28152; Turner Bequest CCLXXXVII 14 a, 58a–59.The sketch closest to the gutter of the book is a view of the Meuse valley taken from a high viewpoint.

Alice Rylance-Watson
May 2013

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Distant View of Namur from the Heights of St-Servais; The Meuse from the Hillside 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-distant-view-of-namur-from-the-heights-of-st-servais-the-r1150426, accessed 22 September 2024.