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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner ?Liège; Landscape overlooked by Fortification 1824

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 23 Recto:
?Liège; Landscape overlooked by Fortification 1824
D19596
Turner Bequest CCXVI 23
Pencil on white wove paper, 78 x 118 mm
Inscribed in blue ink by Ruskin ‘23’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CCXVI–23’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Here Turner depicts two views: one is drawn parallel to the gutter of the sketchbook and shows a fortification atop a plateau overlooking a tree-filled landscape; the second shows a river with churches and other buildings beyond. The church with the narrow tapering spire resembles that of the Cathedral of Saint-Paul at Liège, and, given that building’s proximity to the Meuse, it may be that this unidentified view is indeed of the Belgian city. Liège is depicted on folios 21 recto and 23 verso (Tate D19592, D19597; Turner Bequest CCXVI 21, 23a).

Alice Rylance-Watson
February 2014

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘?Liège; Landscape overlooked by Fortification 1824 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, February 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-liege-landscape-overlooked-by-fortification-r1174384, accessed 28 March 2024.