Joseph Mallord William Turner

Ehrenbreitstein from Coblenz

c.1839

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

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Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of: Meuse-Moselle Gouache and Watercolour Drawings
Medium: Gouache and watercolour on paper
Dimensions: Support: 141 × 192 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D24833
Turner Bequest CCLIX 268

Catalogue entry

Here Turner shows Koblenz’s fortress of Ehrenbreitstein at left, shaded with burnt umber and terracotta gouache. To the right, marked out in a line of blurred black daubs, is a pontoon bridge which is the central feature of Turner Bequest CCLIX 239. The domed Church of the Holy Cross is at centre, faintly suggested in milky white gouache.

This gouache is a companion piece to Tate D24804; Turner Bequest CCLIX 239 and Tate D28409; Turner Bequest CCLIX 244, in terms of colouring, Turner’s handling, and the fact that when put together, all three gouaches ‘show a wide angled view’ from the same or similar viewpoint of Ehrenbreitstein.1

Holy Cross Church and the fortress are shown in a detailed pencil study in the Waterloo and Rhine sketchbook of 1817 (Tate D12803; Turner Bequest CLX 53).

Powell 1991, p.150 no.82.

Verso:

Inscribed in red ink, possibly by Ruskin, ‘?1124’ (inverted) at top right; inscribed in pencil ‘CCLIX–268’ twice, at top left and bottom right

Alice Rylance-Watson
September 2013

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