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

Here Turner incorporates Liège’s citadel atop the heights to the left and the city centre below with the spire of the Cathedral of St Paul at far right. Turner’s handling is fine and swift, the artist broadly mapping out the topography rather than producing a detailed recording of it. There are areas of the sheet left blank and undeveloped. What appears to be a small separate sketch of a church, its tower and surrounding hillside, can be found at the top right of sheet.

For other drawings of Liège in this sketchbook see the following folios: Tate D28066, D28068, D28070, D28072–D28074, D28076; Turner Bequest CCLXXXVII 13, 14, 15, 16–17, 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.