Joseph Mallord William Turner

The principal sketch, which occupies the majority of the page and which has been left largely undeveloped by Turner, depicts Koblenz from an easterly perspective. The twin spires of the Florinskirche and those of St Castor Basilica behind it can be seen at left, while the Ehrenbreitstein fortress is suggested in light silhouette in the background. A further small and slight sketch of Koblenz taken from a distance is located above the principal drawing.

Parallel to the gutter of the sketchbook, at top right, is a squared-off view of Oberwerth, a district of Koblenz situated on the western bank of the Rhine which was once separated from the mainland. A Benedictine monastery, pictured by Turner here in ruins, had occupied the ‘island’ of Oberwerth since the twelfth century.1 It was besieged by French Revolutionary troops in the 1790s and was later dissolved as a result of Napoleonic secularisation.2