J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > Venice, Austria and Southern Germany ... > Würzburg, Rhine and Ostend Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A Distant View of Burg Sterrenberg and Burg Liebenstein (the 'Hostile Brothers'), Looking down the River Rhine, with Three Figures Towing a Boat in the Foreground 1840

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Distant View of Burg Sterrenberg and Burg Liebenstein (the 'Hostile Brothers'), Looking down the River Rhine, with Three Figures Towing a Boat in the Foreground’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 46 Recto:
A Distant View of Burg Sterrenberg and Burg Liebenstein (the ‘Hostile Brothers’), Looking down the River Rhine, with Three Figures Towing a Boat in the Foreground 1840
D30546
Turner Bequest CCCIII 45
Pencil on flecked pale blue laid paper, 104 x 170 mm
Partial watermark: Tree of Liberty
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘45’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCCIII – 45’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The drawing was made with the page turned horizontally. As identified by Cecilia Powell,1 it shows Burg Sterrenberg and (to its right) the nearer Burg Liebenstein, known as the ‘Feindlichen Brüder’ (‘Hostile Brothers’), barely a hundred metres apart and both since partly restored, high on the east bank of the Rhine towards Bornhofen. Looking north-west down the river, in the foreground, apparently as part of the scene rather than a separate detail, three figures strain to tow or beach a boat along the west bank in the vicinity of Bad Salzig.
Powell has noted that Turner neared the end of this tour following ‘the familiar route of the Rhine between Mainz and Cologne. He almost certainly travelled by steamer, ... sketching most of the well-known sights perfunctorily as he passed.’2 Given that this sketchbook was used in reverse of its subsequent foliation, she has specified the overall range of this phase as ‘TB CCCIII 68v–20v; 11r’,3 indicating folios 12 recto and 21 verso–69 verso (D30479, D30497–D30592; Turner Bequest CCCIII 20a–68a); see this book’s Introduction for the full itinerary of this part of the journey.
For other views of the two castles in this sketchbook and elsewhere, see under folio 43 verso (D30541; CCCIII 42a).

Matthew Imms
September 2018

1
Powell 1995, p.246.
2
Ibid., p.72.
3
Ibid., p.82 note 70.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A Distant View of Burg Sterrenberg and Burg Liebenstein (the ‘Hostile Brothers’), Looking down the River Rhine, with Three Figures Towing a Boat in the Foreground 1840 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2018, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2019, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-a-distant-view-of-burg-sterrenberg-and-burg-liebenstein-the-r1196303, accessed 20 July 2025.