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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Trier, Looking down the Moselle towards the Roman Bridge from the West Bank 1824

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 21 Recto:
Trier, Looking down the Moselle towards the Roman Bridge from the West Bank 1824
D20115
Turner Bequest CCXVII 21
Pencil on off-white wove paper, 99 x 162 mm
Inscribed in blue ink by Ruskin ‘21’ top right and ‘247’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCXVII–21’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Rendered in fine and agile line, this drawing shows Trier from across the river near Pallien. The ancient Roman bridge is in full view, a structure which has connected the west bank to the city since the second century. A number of Trier’s most celebrated monuments can be seen, including: the Cathedral of St Peter, the Liebfrauenkirche, and St Gangolf’s Church.
For further depictions of Trier in this sketchbook see Tate D20091, D20111; Turner Bequest CCXVII 5, 17a; see also the Rivers Meuse and Moselle sketchbook (Tate D19725, D19726, D19728–D19730, D19732–D19743; Turner Bequest CCLXXXVIII 88a, 89, 90–91, 92–97a) and the Trèves and Rhine sketchbook (Tate D20141, D20142, D20145, D20146, D20148, D20149–D20154; Turner Bequest CCXVIII 3, 4, 7, 8, 10, 11–16). For later drawings, see Tate D28186, D28206, D28207, D28244, D28246, D28249, D28250, D28256, D28258–D28260, D28263, D28264; Turner Bequest CCLXXXVIII 10a, 20a, 21, 42a, 43a, 45a, 46, 50, 51–52, 54a, 55. There are also two gouache and watercolour drawings of the city: one of the Porta Nigra (Tate D20230; Turner Bequest CCXX W) and the other of Trier from the west (Tate D24715; Turner Bequest CCLIX 150).
Technical notes:
The paper has mottled and browned significantly, a result of the drawing’s prolonged exhibition and exposure to sunlight during the nineteenth century.
Verso:
Blank

Alice Rylance-Watson
January 2014

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Trier, Looking down the Moselle towards the Roman Bridge from the West Bank 1824 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 2014, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2015, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-trier-looking-down-the-moselle-towards-the-roman-bridge-from-r1174314, accessed 26 April 2024.