J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

Here Turner depicts the Belgian city of Liège with the River Meuse, its fluvial artery, at centre. The view is taken from the ancient Pont des Arches and incorporates part of the Outremeuse, a lushly verdant river island, at right. Some of the city’s principal monuments can be seen at centre, rendered cursorily in pale apricot and terracotta gouache with red ink. The illuminated rectangular tower situated towards the left is the Tour Saint-Denis, and next to it is the dome of St Andrew’s Church. Beside the church is the Maison Curtius, a building erected in around 1600 in the Mosan Renaissance architectural style.1 It was constructed as the home of the wealthy Liégeois patrician and manufacturer, Jean Curtius (1551–1628). To the right of the Maison is the tapering and slender spire of St Pault’s Cathedral, and finally, crowning the heights in the distance, is Liège citadel.

Liège is pictured in another gouache of 1839, showing the city from its outskirts with factories in the foreground (see Tate D20283; Turner Bequest CCXXII K).

Verso:

Stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram and ‘CCLIX 99’ at centre towards bottom; inscribed in pencil ‘CCLIX 99’ at bottom right.