Joseph Mallord William Turner

In this series of six sketches Turner records Burgen and Castle Bischofstein as he navigated the Moselle downstream towards Hatzenport. The artist uses hatching to shade Bischofstein’s cylindrical keep and the lower reaches of the vertiginous cliffs reaching down to the river, at centre, showing the fall of light and dark on the valley. A fisherman is depicted in the uppermost view in a similar canopied boat to those drawn on Tate D19801; Turner Bequest CCXVI 125v.

For other sketches and drawings of Burgen and the Burg Bischofstein see: Tate D19802, D28314, D28316, D28319, D28562–D28566, D28966, D29021; Turner Bequest CCXVI 126, CCLXXXIX 12a, 13a, 15, CCXCI 13a–15a, CCXCII 19, 70.

Technical notes:

The paper has browned and the pencil has faded a little: this is the likely result of the folio’s overexposure during its display at the National Gallery in the nineteenth and early twentieth century.