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 Luxembourg with Vauba's Towers on the Plateau of the Rham from the Alzette Valley 1839

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Luxembourg with Vauba's Towers on the Plateau of the Rham from the Alzette Valley’ 1839
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 56 Verso:
Luxembourg with Vauba’s Towers on the Plateau of the Rham from the Alzette Valley 1839
D28266
Turner Bequest CCLXXXVIII 56 a
Pencil on cream laid writing paper, 101 x 168 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This pencil sketch is a preparatory work for two 1839 gouache, pen and ink and watercolour drawings depicting the Rham Plateau and the city of Luxembourg from the Alzette valley (Tate D20272, D24742; Turner Bequest CCXXII M, CCLIX 177). With swift, abbreviated line Turner here suggests the rugged and craggy cliffs of the Rham, upon which is situated a complex of towered fortifications designed by the French military engineer Vauban.
For other sketches of Luxembourg in this book see Tate D28228–D28231, D28267–D28288; Turner Bequest CCLXXXVIII 32a–34, 57–67a. See also the earlier Rivers Meuse and Moselle sketchbook of 1824 (Tate D19712, D19714; Turner Bequest CCXVI 82, 83).

Alice Rylance-Watson
May 2013

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Luxembourg with Vauba’s Towers on the Plateau of the Rham from the Alzette Valley 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-luxembourg-with-vaubas-towers-on-the-plateau-of-the-rham-r1150543, accessed 26 April 2024.