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 Braubach and the Marksburg, on the River Rhine 1840

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Braubach and the Marksburg, on the River Rhine’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 42 Verso:
Braubach and the Marksburg, on the River Rhine 1840
D30538
Turner Bequest CCCIII 41
Pencil on flecked pale blue laid paper, 104 x 170 mm
Partial watermark (countermark): indecipherable maker’s name
 
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 Braubach, on the east bank of the Rhine, downriver of the imposing (and intact) medieval Marksburg castle high above the spire of St Barbara’s Church.
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 Braubach views, see the 1817 Waterloo and Rhine and Rhine sketchbooks (respectively Tate D12844–D12845, D12847, D12851; Turner Bequest CLX 73a, 74, 75, 77; D12912–D12915, D12974, D12976, D41395; CLXI 18, 19, 19a, 20, 49, 50), the 1833 Brussels up to Mannheim – Rhine sketchbook (D29704–D29705, D29727; CCXCVI 56, 56a, 67a), the 1839 Trèves to Cochem and Coblenz to Mayence sketchbook (D28520–D28522; CCXC 83, 83a, 84), the 1841 Rhine and Switzerland and Berne, Heidelberg and Rhine sketchbooks (D32856; CCCXXV 56a; (D32992; CCCXXVI 58), and the 1844 Ostend, Rhine and Berne sketchbook (D33066–D33068; CCCXXVII 15a–16a).
The castle is also recorded in most of the same books: Waterloo and Rhine and Rhine (D12800–D12801, D12847, D12851; CLX 51a, 52, 75, 77; D12912–D12915, D12974, D12976, D41395; CLXI 17 verso, 18–20, 49, 50), Brussels up to Mannheim – Rhine (D29652, D29668, D29677, D29703–D29705, D29716, D29727; CCXCVI 28a, 37, 42, 55a–56a, 62, 67a), Trèves to Cochem and Coblenz to Mayence (D28516, D28520–D28523; CCXC 82b, 83–84a), Rhine and Switzerland and Berne, Heidelberg and Rhine (D32856; CCCXXV 56a; D32991; CCCXXVI 57a); and also in the 1843 Dover, Rhine and Innsbruck sketchbook (D31229; CCCIX 4a). There is an 1817 watercolour, Marxburg (Indianapolis Museum of Art),4 and a larger variant of 1820 (British Museum, London).5 An untraced watercolour of about 1841 possibly shows Braubach and the castle.6
The Turner Bequest number for this page lacks the usual ‘a’ suffix to indicate a verso in Finberg’s 1909 Inventory.7 The otherwise blank recto is inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘41’ and stamped in black ‘CCCIII – 41’ at the bottom right, in sequence with adjacent leaves. When Tate accession numbers were assigned, the present page was initially designated as D30539 (‘CCCIII 41v’), but these redundant numbers were subsequently cancelled.

Matthew Imms
September 2018

1
Powell 1995, p.246.
2
Ibid., p.72.
3
Ibid., p.82 note 70.
4
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.376 no.653, reproduced.
5
Ibid., p.380 no.692, reproduced.
6
Ibid., p.459 no.1323, as ‘Coblenz – evening’, reproduced, noting ‘Braubach, with the Castle of Marksburg’ as an alternative subject.
7
See Finberg 1909, II, p.979.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Braubach and the Marksburg, on the River Rhine 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-braubach-and-the-marksburg-on-the-river-rhine-r1196296, accessed 12 May 2025.