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 Notre-Dame, Mézières, from the North-East, with the Pont d'Arche on the Right 1839

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Notre-Dame, Mézières, from the North-East, with the Pont d'Arche on the Right’ 1839
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 17 Recto:
Notre-Dame, Mézières, from the North-East, with the Pont d’Arche on the Right 1839
D28199
Turner Bequest CCLXXXVIII 17
Pencil on cream laid writing paper, 101 x 168 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘B’ towards bottom left
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘17’ bottom right
Stamped in black ink ‘CCLXXXVIII–17’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With agile line, Turner sketches a scene at Mézières, incorporating the tower of the Basilica of Notre-Dame d’Espérance with its bell-shaped spire and the bridge (the Pont d’Arche) to the right. The artist has suggested foliage at the left with a length of curling line: an example of his pictorial shorthand. Below the principal drawing, at bottom left, is a further view of the bridge, though manifestly much smaller and less developed. Turner has inscribed the letter ‘B’ above it.
Technical notes:
There is some brown staining at the gutter of the sketchbook which seems to have been caused by water damage. It is also visible at the corresponding section of the opposite folio (Tate D28198; Turner Bequest CCLXXXVIII 16a).

Alice Rylance-Watson
May 2013

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Notre-Dame, Mézières, from the North-East, with the Pont d’Arche on the Right 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-notre-dame-mezieres-from-the-north-east-with-the-pont-darche-r1150476, accessed 25 April 2024.