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

On this sheet Turner makes further studies of the ancient Burg Thurandt and the village of Alken over which it presides (see also Tate D19806–D19809; Turner Bequest CCXVI 128–129a). The artist makes note of the sheer vertiginous cliffs at left in the central sketch: geology typical of this stretch of the Moselle, according to the travel writer Bartholomew Stritch, who speaks of ‘a lofty barrier of rocks’ near Alken.1 The rear sketch is a diminutive yet carefully rendered view of Gondorf (inscribed ‘Condoff’ by Turner). Stritch describes the settlement as a ‘large and handsome village, occupying a romantic site on the left bank of the river’.2 For further sketches of Gondorf see Tate D19810–D19811, D24588, D28300, D28583–D28585; Turner Bequest CCXVI 130–130a, CCLIX 23, CCLXXXIX 5a, CCXCI 24a–25a.