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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Meuse-Mosel, Luxembourg and Northern ... > Rivers Meuse and Moselle Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Huy, Looking Upstream; Barge Moored at Quayside at Huy, just below the Bridge 1824

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Huy, Looking Upstream; Barge Moored at Quayside at Huy, just below the Bridge’ 1824
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 38 Recto:
Huy, Looking Upstream; Barge Moored at Quayside at Huy, just below the Bridge 1824
D19626
Turner Bequest CCXVI 38
Pencil on white wove paper, 78 x 118 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘Tiles’ on cargo of boat
Inscribed in blue ink by Ruskin ‘38’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CCXVI–38’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the sketchbook orientated in accordance with the foliation, the uppermost drawing is a continuation of a wide view of Huy from the folio opposite (Tate D19625; Turner Bequest CCXVI 37a). The principal drawing was taken with the sketchbook orientated to landscape format and shows the quayside and a narrow side street next to the arched bridge at Huy. A river barge laden with a cargo of ‘Tiles’ is moored at the dockside; figures converse to the right of the vessel: perhaps they are crew tasked with loading or unloading wares or perhaps they are locals engaged in trade or conversation. Though cursory, this sketch offers the viewer a glimpse of daily life and labour on the banks of the Meuse from a closer perspective than usual, indicating that Turner had disembarked at this point to take to the streets of Huy on foot.

Alice Rylance-Watson
March 2014

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Huy, Looking Upstream; Barge Moored at Quayside at Huy, just below the Bridge 1824 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, March 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-huy-looking-upstream-barge-moored-at-quayside-at-huy-just-r1174414, accessed 20 September 2024.