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

Rendered in fine and tentative line, here Turner depicts the Walloon city of Liège, suggesting the layered array of the city’s architecture. In the distance at the right is the citadel crowning the city heights and in the centre towards the left, the tower of St Paul’s Cathedral.

For other drawings of Liège in this sketchbook see the following folios: Tate D28066, D28068, D28071–D28074, D28076; Turner Bequest CCLXXXVII 13, 14, 15a–17, 18. For Turner’s earlier views of the city see the Rivers Meuse and Moselle sketchbook of 1824 (Tate D19598, D19636–D19638, D20061–D20064; Turner Bequest CCXVI 24, 43a–44a, 260a–262); the Huy and Dinant sketchbook of the same date (Tate D20084, D20095–D20103; Turner Bequest CCXVII 1, 8–12); the Holland, Meuse and Cologne sketchbook of 1825 (Tate D19446–D19447, D19520–D19521; Turner Bequest CCXV 25a–26, 71a–72); and the Holland sketchbook of the same date (Tate D19160; Turner Bequest CCXIV 162). There are also drawings of Liège in the 1833 Brussels up to Mannheim–Rhine sketchbook (Tate D29669–D29670, D29673; Turner Bequest CCXCVI 37a–38, 39a). For colour studies of the city in gouache, pen and ink and watercolour see Tate D24664, D20283; Turner Bequest CCLIX 99, CCXXII X.