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

A.J. Finberg catalogued this leaf and its verso (Tate D20082; Turner Bequest CCXVI 271a) as depicting ‘Views on the River Meuse’.1 This cataloguer has found that the views are in fact of the Moselle and were taken at and near the German city of Trier. The uppermost sketch is a prospect of Trier taken from the Moselle. Cliffs frame the view at left, and beyond, the profile of Trier Cathedral and the twin spires of the Liebfrauenkirche can be seen. At centre is a distant view of the city and the lowermost sketch shows the Moselle from its outskirts.

This sheet was removed from the sketchbook by John Ruskin and remained as a loose, unnumbered leaf when Finberg first came to catalogue it. The book was then reorganised and rebound at some point after 1909, and this leaf was placed in its current position (see the Technical notes section in the sketchbook Introduction).