Joseph Mallord William Turner

Here Turner portrays the hollowed and weathered remains of the Burg Landshut, a castle constructed in 1277 by Archbishop Heinrich von Vinstingen which was destroyed by a great fire in 1692.1 The castle is pictured here from the Moselle, looming over Bernkastel from atop a precipitous cliff. Boats and river barges such as those sketched on the folio opposite (Tate D19757; Turner Bequest CCXVI 104a) can be seen navigating by the town, their lofty masts rendered in long vertical strokes of the pencil. Below this drawing are two views of Bernkastel: at left Turner records the town’s half-timbered houses crammed together on a narrow street; at right, and orientated horizontally, the artist depicts the flying bridge.

For further drawings of Bernkastel and the Burg Landshut see D19759–D19760, D20176–D20182, D28312–D28313, D28406–D28412; Turner Bequest CCXVI 105a–106, CCXIX 15–21, CCLXXXIX 11a–12, CCXC 28a–31a. See also the highly finished watercolour of Bernkastel on the Mosel (c.1830), developed from Turner’s 1824 sketches of this town and its castle.2