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 > Meuse-Moselle Gouache and Watercolour ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Huy from the West c.1839

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Huy from the West’ c.1839
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Huy from the West c.1839
D20222
Turner Bequest CCXX O
Gouache and watercolour on blue wove paper, 138 x 187 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCXX O’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This gouache depicts Huy from a westerly perspective, and incorporates the sweeping meander of the Meuse and the west tower of Notre-Dame Collegiate Church, colloquially known as Li Rondia. The view is similar to that recorded in the Spa, Dinant, and Namur sketchbook (Tate D28139; Turner Bequest CCLXXXVII 51 and in one other gouache and watercolour drawing of 1839 Tate D20288; Turner Bequest CCXXIII C.
The work is composed of layered applications of translucent watercolour wash and softly smudged opaque gouache, lending the prospect a hazy and ethereal effect. Contours appear to diffuse gently and there is no use of the defining pen and ink line employed in Tate D20221; Turner Bequest CCXX N, another Huy gouache.
Verso:
Inscribed in pencil ‘Huy – Meuse’ at top left, ‘26’ and ‘6a’ at centre; stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram and ‘CCXX O’ at bottom centre.

Alice Rylance-Watson
June 2013

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Huy from the West c.1839 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 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-huy-from-the-west-r1150945, accessed 31 October 2025.