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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Rhine Front at Koblenz, Looking Downstream towards the Bridge of Boats, with Boats and Figures 1824

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 139 Verso:
The Rhine Front at Koblenz, Looking Downstream towards the Bridge of Boats, with Boats and Figures 1824
D19825
Turner Bequest CCXVI 137 a
Pencil on white wove paper, 78 x 118 mm
Watermark ‘[smith &] allnut | [18]22’
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Here Turner pictures a fleet of three riverboats, manned with crew and laden with cargo, navigating the Rhine towards a pontoon bridge at Koblenz. The artist leaves much of the page bare, drawing only a few waterfront buildings at left and a line of dashes in the middle distance to represent the bridge of boats. His primary focus is the vessels sailing the Rhine, the largest of which bears resemblance to the sort of passenger boats which plied up and down that river regularly, transporting locals and tourists alike (see Tate D28611; Turner Bequest CCXCI 38a). The two smaller craft tailing the barge appear to be carrying hefty freight covered with canopies.
More sketches of Koblenz can be found in this book on Tate D19818–D19824, D19826–D19830; Turner Bequest CCXVI 134–137, 138–140.

Alice Rylance-Watson
June 2014

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘The Rhine Front at Koblenz, Looking Downstream towards the Bridge of Boats, with Boats and Figures 1824 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 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-rhine-front-at-koblenz-looking-downstream-towards-the-r1174616, accessed 19 September 2024.