'Beilstein and Burg Metternich', Joseph Mallord William Turner

Artwork details

Artist

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775‑1851)

Title

Beilstein and Burg Metternich

Date c.1839

MediumGouache and watercolour on paper

Dimensionssupport: 140 x 192 mm

Collection

Tate

Acquisition Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

Reference

D20239

Turner Bequest CCXXI F

View this artwork by appointment, at Tate Britain's Prints and Drawings Rooms

Display caption

Beilstein is situated on one of the many bends of the Mosel, so that river travellers enjoy numerous changing views of the town nestling in its ravine and the gaunt ruins perched high above it. Turner has captured this scene in brilliant colours, emphasising with his tiny brush strokes the degree to which bare rock alternates with vines and bushes, as each slope catches the sunlight in a slightly different way.

August 1991