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

This is a continuation of the sketch map on the folio opposite (Tate D19559; Turner Bequest CCXVI 4a), and shows the course of the River Meuse between the Belgian cities of Huy and Liège and between Liège and Maastricht in the south-east of the Netherlands.

Turner’s map of the Belgian stretch of the Meuse begins with ‘Beaufort’, a reference to the ruined castle keep of Beaufort which overlooks the valley at Lovegnée from atop a lofty spur (see Tate D29643; Turner Bequest CCXCVI 24). Erected by the lords of the same name in the twelfth century, the site is also home to the remains of an oratory where the local community once celebrated mass.1 ‘Huy’ is shown beneath Beaufort, near Vinalmont (‘Vign[...]t’), and followed by: ‘Flame’ (Flémalle) and ‘Agremont’, i.e. the Château Aigremont, an ancient stronghold of the La Marck family (see Tate D19558; Turner Bequest CCXVI 4). By the time of Turner’s visit, Aigremont was the home of the descendents of Archedeacon Mattias Clercx, who had purchased the fortress in 1715 and transformed it into a palace with lavish Baroque interiors and gardens laid in the French seventeenth-century style.2 From Aigremont, Turner notes ‘Neuville’ (Neuville-en-Condroz), ‘Tileur’ (Tilleur), ‘Gemeps’ (Jemeppe), ‘?Serg’ (Seraing), and finally, ‘Liege’. At the foot of the page Turner appears to have inscribed ‘Riv Outre’, signifying the River Ourthe, which is a right tributary of the Meuse. Directly below, he has written ‘R Vesdee’, which is the River Vesdre, a right tributary of the Ourthe. At bottom right is the inscription ‘Charleuse’, a misspelling of ‘Chartreuse’. Here Turner refers to the former Charterhouse of Liège, a fourteenth-century Carthusian monastery built atop the Mount Cornillon overlooking the confluence of the Ourthe and Meuse Rivers.3

The map of the Meuse between Liège and Maastricht begins at top left, with ‘Horstale’ (Herstale) and continues with ‘Wandre’, ‘Vise’, and ‘Daelhem’ (Dalhem), where the ruins of an ancient fortress are situated. The Palatine Count Hermann II constructed the Château Comtal de Dalhem between 1076 and 1080 to police his territories and levy taxes.4 ‘Liche’ (Lixhe) is shown, before the river bends towards Maastricht and ‘Wyck’. Turner appears to have drawn the Jeker, a left tributary of the Meuse, above Maastricht.

At the foot of the map is a slight sketch of Sedan, in the Ardennes department of northern France (see Tate D19552–D19553, D19682–D19683, D28202–D28203, D28208–D28210; Turner Bequest CCXVI 1–1a, 66a–67, CCLXXXVIII 18a–19, 21a–22a).