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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > The Second Meuse-Moselle Tour 1839 > Meuse-Moselle Gouache and Watercolour ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Dinant, on the Meuse, from the South c.1839

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Dinant, on the Meuse, from the South’ c.1839
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Dinant, on the Meuse, from the South c.1839
D24724
Turner Bequest CCLIX 159
Gouache and watercolour on blue wove paper, 139 x 192 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCLIX –159’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Rendered in an arresting spectrum of colour, this view of Dinant in Belgium is one of the most evocative and impressionistic of Turner’s 1839 gouaches. The light is iridescent, shifting between hues of lemon yellow, blued yellow, and rose pink.
Dinant’s arched bridge stands at centre, connecting the two banks of the Meuse. The structure appears almost spectral, rendered with watercolour wash on wetted paper. The fluid pigment used to draw the piers of the bridge has migrated slightly, bleeding and feathering, in a manner which evokes the optical phenomenon of a mirage.
The hillsides flanking the Meuse are rendered with more opaque pigment: violet, rust-brown gouache streaked with red in the foreground. The citadel, which dates from 1530 and was rebuilt in 1821 during the Dutch occupation, can be seen crowning the vertiginous cliff at the right in gloomy silhouette. The Rocher Bayard, a forty-metre monolith, is beneath it.
Turner sketched extensively at Dinant, recording its monuments from various perspectives. From the numerous pencil sketches in the Spa, Dinant, and Namur sketchbook of c.1839 (Tate D28042, D28094, D28122, D28125, D28142, D28147, D28153, D28155–D28158, D28160–D28166, D41091; Turner Bequest CCLXXXVII 1, 27a, 42a, 44a, 53, 56a, 59a, 60a–62a, 63a–66a), the artist produced six impressive gouache drawings (those belonging to Tate are: Tate D20227–D20229; Turner Bequest CCXX T, U, V).1
1
See also Powell 1991, pp.160–1 no.97 or Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.421 no.1026), 162 no.100, 163 no.102.
Verso:
There are very faint markings in chalk at the bottom of the page which appear to be rough sketches of two small boats, inverted. The verso is also inscribed in pencil ‘CCLIX 159’ at bottom right.

Alice Rylance-Watson
June 2013

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Dinant, on the Meuse, from the South c.1839 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-dinant-on-the-meuse-from-the-south-r1151001, accessed 09 February 2025.