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 Fürstenberg, Looking up the River Rhine 1840

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Burg Fürstenberg, Looking up the River Rhine’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 59 Recto:
Burg Fürstenberg, Looking up the River Rhine 1840
D30572
Turner Bequest CCCIII 58
Pencil on flecked pale blue laid paper, 104 x 170 mm
Partial watermark: Tree of Liberty
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘58’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCCIII – 58’ 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 the ruins of Burg Fürstenberg, high above Rheindiebach on the west bank of the River Rhine, looking upriver to the south-east.
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 Fürstenberg is also shown on folio 60 recto (D30573; CCCIII 59). For other views, see the 1817 Waterloo and Rhine and Rhine sketchbooks (respectively Tate D12825, D12842; Turner Bequest CLX 64, 72a; D12940; CLXI 31a), the 1833 Brussels up to Mannheim – Rhine sketchbook (D29727–D29729, D29731 CCXCVI 67a–68a, 69a), and the 1835 Prague, Nuremberg, Frankfurt and Rhine sketchbook (D30661–D30662; CCCIV 16, 16a).
1
Powell 1995, p.246.
2
Ibid., p.72.
3
Ibid., p.82 note 70.
Verso:
Blank

Matthew Imms
September 2018

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Burg Fürstenberg, 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-furstenberg-looking-up-the-river-rhine-r1196329, accessed 26 April 2024.