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 South-East with the Pont de Pierre in the Foreground 1839

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Notre-Dame, Mézières, from the South-East with the Pont de Pierre in the Foreground’ 1839
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 18 Recto:
Notre-Dame, Mézières, from the South-East with the Pont de Pierre in the Foreground 1839
D28201
Turner Bequest CCLXXXVIII 18
Pencil on cream laid writing paper, 101 x 168 mm
Partial Pro Patria watermark
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘2’ and ‘3’ at top left and right corners respectively | ‘[?m...]’ top right towards centre
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘18’ bottom right
Stamped in black ink ‘CCLXXXVIII–18’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
There are several separate sketches of Mézières on this page: the principal drawing depicts the Basilica of Notre-Dame d’Espérance rising loftily above an array of gabled rooftops. The Pont de Pierre is in the foreground, with its stone piers protruding a little like Gothic flying buttresses. This drawing and other sketches of Notre-Dame (Tate D28191, D28193, D28195, D28196, D28199, D28204; Turner Bequest CCLXXXVIII 13, 14, 15a, 17, 19a) constitute preparatory studies for a gouache and watercolour drawing of Mézières executed on blue paper in 1839 (Tate D24731; Turner Bequest CCLIX 166).
At the top left and right are two separate sketches of buildings, each inscribed with the numbers ‘2’ and ‘3’. It is probable that they too depict a part of Mézières.

Alice Rylance-Watson
May 2013

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Notre-Dame, Mézières, from the South-East with the Pont de Pierre in the Foreground 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-south-east-with-the-pont-de-r1150478, accessed 19 April 2024.