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 Givet and Fort Charlemont from the North 1839

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Givet and Fort Charlemont from the North’ 1839
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 4 Recto
Givet and Fort Charlemont from the North 1839
D28173
Turner Bequest CCLXXXVIII 4
Pencil on cream laid writing paper, 101 x 168 mm
Partial Pro Patria watermark
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘4’ bottom right
Stamped in black ink ‘CCLXXXVIII–4’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Executed in cursory line, this sketch pictures the French town of Givet close to the borders of Belgium. From left, Turner depicts the Tour Grégoire, the stone bridge traversing the Meuse and finally, the fortress of Charlemont atop the mountain range.
The Emperor Charles V established Fort Charlemont in 1555 as a defence against the French, until Givet was formerly ceded to Louis XVI in 1699.1 Like Namur, the fortress had been strengthened by the French King’s chief military engineer Vauban.2
This and other sketches of Givet in this book (Tate D28170–D28172, D28174–D28185, D28187; Turner Bequest CCLXXXVIII 2a–3a, 4a–10, 11) formed the basis of a gouache and watercolour drawing on blue paper (private collection).3

Alice Rylance-Watson
May 2013

1
‘An Exciting New French River Scene: “Givet on the Meuse, South of Dinant”’, Turner Society News, no.110, December 2008
2
‘Givet’, Fortified Places, http://www.fortified-places.com/givet/, accessed 28 June 2013.
3
Reproduced in Powell 1991, p.163 no.102.

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Givet and Fort Charlemont from the North 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-givet-and-fort-charlemont-from-the-north-r1150450, accessed 23 April 2024.