Joseph Mallord William Turner

This slight sketch of Mainz was taken from the east of the city, looking down the Rhine. It incorporates St Martin’s Cathedral and Church of St Stephan as well as some of the gate towers of Mainz which have stood since the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

Turner’s inscription ‘Nass’ may refer to the ancient House of Nassau whose Counts controlled Wiesbaden, Idstein, and Weilburg. The note ‘Flu’ may correspond to the inscription on the folio 70 recto (Tate D28489; Turner Bequest CCXC 70) which reads ‘Flusbad’ (‘Flussbad’, i.e. ‘river pool’); ‘Harb’ is possibly a shortening of ‘harbour’.