Joseph Mallord William Turner Luxembourg from the Alzette Valley c.1839
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Luxembourg from the Alzette Valley c.1839
D20272
Turner Bequest CCXXII M
Turner Bequest CCXXII M
Gouache, pen and ink and watercolour on blue wove paper, 138 x 187 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCXXII M’ bottom right
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCXXII M’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Exhibition history
1896
Fifth Loan Collection, National Gallery, London, 1896, Grosvenor Museum, Chester, 1897–9, Corporation Galleries, Glasgow, 1900–2, National Gallery, London, 1903, Museum and Art Gallery, Bristol, 1904–6, National Gallery, London, 1907–8, Liverpool Art Gallery, 1909–10, Aberdeen, 1911, Nottingham Art Gallery, 1912, Grosvenor Museum, Chester, 1913, Museum and Art Gallery, Plymouth, February 1914, Blackpool, 1915, Blackburn Art Gallery, 1916–18, Bradford Art Gallery, 1919–20, Burnley, 1921–2, Colne, 1923–4, Rawtenstall, 1925–6, Tate Gallery, London, 1927–30, transferred to the British Museum, London 1931 (no catalogue, 48).
1937
Watercolours from the Turner Bequest [Loan Series C], Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne, January–March 1937, Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield, September 1946–February 1947 (no catalogue, but numbered 48).
1939
Aberystwyth, ?November 1939–1939 (no catalogue; 12, Called Ehrenbreitstein, but more probably Luxembourg).
1939
Grande Saison internationale de l’eau, Liège, May–September 1939 (12, Called Ehrenbreitstein, but more probably Luxembourg).
1953
J.M.W. Turner R.A. 1775–1851: Pictures from Public and Private Collections in Great Britain, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, February–March 1953 (168, as Fortified Town).
1984
J.M.W. Turner in Luxembourg and its neighbourhood, Musée de l’Etat, Luxembourg, March–April 1984 (6, reproduced as Vue de Luxembourg depuis la vallée de Pulvermühl).
1993
J.M.W. Turner 1775–1851: Impressions de Gran Bretanya i el Continent Europeu / Impresiones de Gran Bretaña y el Continente Europeo, Centre Cultural de la Fundació ”la Caixa”, Barcelona, September–November 1993, Sala de Exposiciones de la Fundación ”la Caixa”, Madrid, November 1993–January 1994 (68, reproduced in colour).
1994
J.M.W. Turner 1775–1851: Aquarelles et Dessins du Legs Turner: Collection de la Tate Gallery, Londres / Watercolours and Drawings from the Turner Bequest: Collection from the Tate Gallery, London, Palais des Beaux-Arts de Charleroi, September–December 1994 (68, reproduced in colour).
1995
J.M.W. Turner: The Luxembourg Watercolours: Collections de la Tate Gallery, Londres et du Musée national d’histoire et d’art, Luxembourg, Musée national d’histoire et d’art, Luxembourg, January–February 1995 (5, reproduced in colour as Vue de Luxembourg depuis la vallée de Pulvermühl).
References
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.II, p.691, as ‘Ehrenbreitstein’.
1944
Laurence Binyon, English Water-Colours, 2nd edition, revised by Basil Gray, London 1944, p.199.
1991
Cecilia Powell, Turner’s Rivers of Europe: The Rhine, Meuse and Mosel, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1991, pp.176, 178–9 no.125.
1995
Jean Luc Koltz and Jean-Claude Muller, J.M.W. Turner: The Luxembourg Watercolours: Collections de la Tate Gallery, Londres et du Musée national d’histoire et d’art, Luxembourg, exhibition catalogue, Musée national d’histoire et d’art, Luxembourg 1995, p.28 no.6.
In this drawing Turner depicts Luxembourg from south-east of the Rham plateau. The city is loosely marked out in the distance, shrouded in an ethereal mist which rises from the Alzette river valley below. Turner’s palette of earthy brown and green hues along with muted purple and blue-grey is similar to Tate D20270; Turner Bequest CCXXII K. Also similar is Turner’s use of hairline strokes of pen and deep rust-red ink to suggest the crags of the rocky plateau and the topography and architecture of the city beyond.
The composition is derived from a rough pencil drawing in the Givet, Mézières, Verdun, Metz, Luxemburg and Trèves sketchbook of 1839 (Tate D28266; Turner Bequest CCLXXXVIII 56 a).
Verso:
Inscribed in pencil ‘8’ at centre towards right; stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram and ‘CCXXII–M’ at bottom left and inscribed in pencil ‘CCXXII M’ at bottom right.
Inscribed in pencil ‘8’ at centre towards right; stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram and ‘CCXXII–M’ at bottom left and inscribed in pencil ‘CCXXII M’ at bottom right.
Alice Rylance-Watson
June 2013
How to cite
Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Luxembourg from the Alzette Valley 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