The first sketchbook Turner used in 1833 was the only one taken with him from London. It contains many careful studies of Belgian towns - Ostend, Bruges, Ghent, Liège, Huy and Namur - and small quick sketches of the Rhine between Cologne and Mannheim, evidently drawn whenever an opportunity arose. Mannheim was greatly praised by Turner's contemporaries for its elegance and beauty, the bridge of boats over the Rhine providing an excellent viewpoint of the large domed Jesuit church and Electoral Palace. Among the trees on the left is the bridge over the canal which links the Rhine and the Neckar. At Mannheim Turner left the Rhine to travel eastwards to Heidelberg.
Gallery label, April 1995
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