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 Two Sketches of the Fortifications of the Bock, Luxembourg 1839

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Two Sketches of the Fortifications of the Bock, Luxembourg’ 1839
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 33 Recto:
Two Sketches of the Fortifications of the Bock, Luxembourg 1839
D28229
Turner Bequest CCLXXXVIII 33
Pencil on cream laid writing paper, 101 x 168 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘33’ bottom right
Stamped in black ink ‘CCLXXXVIII–33’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Here Turner has made two small sketches of the Bock, a promontory located in the north-eastern corner of Luxembourg’s historical district. Its fortifications date back to 963 and have been developed, reinforced, destroyed, and rebuilt over centuries. This sketch and that on the previous folio (Tate D28228; Turner Bequest CCLXXXVIII 32a) form the basis for a gouache, pen and ink and watercolour drawing on blue paper of the city taken from a southerly perspective (private collection).1

Alice Rylance-Watson
May 2013

1
See Powell 1991, p.175 no.122.

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Two Sketches of the Fortifications of the Bock, Luxembourg 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-two-sketches-of-the-fortifications-of-the-bock-luxembourg-r1150506, accessed 19 April 2024.