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 Distant View of Metz 1839

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Distant View of Metz’ 1839
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 28 Verso:
Distant View of Metz 1839
D28222
Turner Bequest CCLXXXVIII 28 a
Pencil on cream laid writing paper, 101 x 168 mm
Partial Pro Patria watermark
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Employing agile line, Turner has produced a view of Metz from the surrounding hillsides. The profile of St Stephen’s Cathedral is visible at the left, outlined and shaded with hatching. A serpentine line is before it, suggesting the trajectory of either the Moselle or Seille Rivers which converge at Metz.
For other representations of Metz in this sketchbook see Tate D28200, D28216–D28219, D28221, D28232–D28235; Turner Bequest CCLXXXVIII 17a, 25a–27, 28, 34–36. There is also a gouache and watercolour drawing of the city produced on blue paper in 1839 (Tate D24757; Turner Bequest CCLIX 192). For earlier depictions of Metz see the Rivers Meuse and Moselle sketchbook of 1824 (Tate D19706, D19709, D19786; Turner Bequest CCXVI 79, 80a, 118).

Alice Rylance-Watson
May 2013

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Distant View of Metz 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-metz-r1150499, accessed 26 April 2024.