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

Here Turner depicts the city of Dinant, with locals undertaking their daily activities on the eastern banks of the Meuse. The quay close to the bridge (depicted in the uppermost sketch) served as place of ‘recreation as well as commerce’ for the Dinantais; and at the foot of the bridge, the Victorian author and journalist Dudley Costello writes of a ‘spacious market-place’ where provisions and wares were bought and sold.1 Turner makes note of ‘Women washing’ in the second sketch from the top, and in the lowermost sketch the citadel of Dinant crowns the heights overlooking the town and the Church of Notre-Dame.

For other views of Dinant taken in 1824, see Tate D19655, D19656, D19658–D19663, D20109–D20113; Turner Bequest CCXVI 53, 53a, 54a–57, CCXVII 16–19. For later views see Tate D28094, D28122, D28125, D28142, D28147, D28153, D28155–D28158, D28160–D28166, D41091; Turner Bequest CCLXXXVII 27a, 42a, 44a, 53, 56a, 59a, 60a–62a, 63a–66a. There are also colour sketches of the town produced in gouache on blue paper in 1839, some with pen and ink and watercolour added (Tate D20227, D20228, D24724, D28984; Turner Bequest CCXX T, U; CCLIX 159, CCXCII 37).