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 Burg Ehrenfels, the Rochuskapelle above Bingen and the Mäuseturm, Looking up the River Rhine 1840

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Burg Ehrenfels, the Rochuskapelle above Bingen and the Mäuseturm, Looking up the River Rhine’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 64 Verso:
Burg Ehrenfels, the Rochuskapelle above Bingen and the Mäuseturm, Looking up the River Rhine 1840
D30582
Turner Bequest CCCIII 63a
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 the ruins of Burg Ehrenfels high on the left, the Rochuskapelle (chapel of St Roch) on the skyline right of centre, and the medieval Mäuseturm tower, since restored, on its island in the Rhine off Bingen, looking east up the river.
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.
Burg Ehrenfels is also shown on folios 65 recto and 66 recto (D30583, D30585; CCCIII 64, 65). For other views, see the 1817 Waterloo and Rhine and Rhine sketchbooks (respectively Tate D12829, D12831, D12833, D12840–D12841; Turner Bequest CLX 66, 67, 68, 71a, 72; D12944–D12945, D12948–D12949; CLXI 33a, 34, 35a, 36), the 1833 Brussels up to Mannheim – Rhine sketchbook (D29598, D29739–D29742, D29744–D29745; CCXCVI 2a, 73a–75, 76, 76a), the 1835 Prague, Nuremberg, Frankfurt and Rhine sketchbook (D30645, D30648, D30651; CCCIV 8, 9a, 11), and the 1839 Trèves to Cochem and Coblenz to Mayence sketchbook (D28493; CCXC 72), There is a double-sided watercolour of about 1841, Burg Ehrenfels on the Rhine, Looking towards Bingen, with Burg Ehrenfels, Looking towards the Mäuseturm on the verso (Royal Cornwall Museum, Truro).4
The chapel appears again on folio 67 recto (D30587; CCCIII 66), and in the Waterloo and Rhine book (D12840–D12841; CLX 71a, 72). The Mäuseturm is also depicted on folios 65 recto and verso, 66 verso and 68 recto (D30583–D30584, D30586, D30589; CCCIII 64, 64a, 65a, 67). For other views, see the Waterloo and Rhine and Rhine books (D12827, D12829, D12835; CLX 65, 66, 69; D12944–D12945, D12948, D12949; CLXI 33a, 34, 35a, 36), Brussels up to Mannheim – Rhine (D29598, D29737, D29739–D29742, D29744–D29745; CCXCVI 2a, 72a, 73a–75, 76, 76a), Prague, Nuremberg, Frankfurt and Rhine (D30644–D30645, D30648, D30651; CCCIV 7a, 8, 9a, 11), and Trèves to Cochem and Coblenz to Mayence (D28492–D28493; CCXC 71a, 72).
There is an 1817 watercolour, The Binger Loch and Mäuseturm (private collection),5 while a double-sided watercolour of about 1841, Burg Ehrenfels on the Rhine, Looking towards Bingen, shows Burg Ehrenfels, Looking towards the Mäuseturm on the verso (Royal Cornwall Museum, Truro).6

Matthew Imms
September 2018

1
Powell 1995, p.246.
2
Ibid., p.72.
3
Ibid., p.82 note 70.
4
Not in Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979; Powell 1995, pp.184–5 no.113, reproduced (both sides, recto in colour).
5
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.378 no.679, as ‘Bingen Lorch and the Mausethurm’, reproduced.
6
Not in Wilton 1979; Powell 1995, pp.184–5 no.113, reproduced (both sides, recto in colour).

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Burg Ehrenfels, the Rochuskapelle above Bingen and the Mäuseturm, Looking up 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-burg-ehrenfels-the-rochuskapelle-above-bingen-and-the-r1196339, accessed 25 April 2024.