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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Citadel, Church and Bridge at Huy, Looking Upstream from the South Bank of the Meuse with Part of the Ruined Town Walls 1824

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 6 Recto:
The Citadel, Church and Bridge at Huy, Looking Upstream from the South Bank of the Meuse with Part of the Ruined Town Walls 1824
D20092
Turner Bequest CCXVII 6
Pencil on off-white wove paper, 99 x 162 mm
Inscribed in blue ink by Ruskin ‘6’ top right and ‘247’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCXVII–6’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Rendered with swift handling, Turner has framed this view of Huy with the crumbling remains of a tower belonging to the town’s medieval ramparts (see also Tate D29661; Turner Bequest CCXCVI 33). The walls and a tower similar to that shown here is depicted in a painting by Andreas Schelfhout (1787–1870) entitled Small Street in Huy, Belgium c.1824. Beyond the walls is the Church of Notre-Dame, the citadel crowning the rocky heights above, and the arched stone bridge crossing the Meuse at right.
At top right is a small sketch of a town, possibly Huy. Two churches with spired towers can be seen. There are also two tiny details of architectural features, which appear to be the contours of a tower or cupola.

Alice Rylance-Watson
January 2014

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘The Citadel, Church and Bridge at Huy, Looking Upstream from the South Bank of the Meuse with Part of the Ruined Town Walls 1824 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, January 2014, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2015, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-citadel-church-and-bridge-at-huy-looking-upstream-from-r1174288, accessed 23 November 2024.