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 Reichenstein, Burg Rheinstein and the Klemenskapelle, near Trechtingshausen on the River Rhine; Burg Reichenstein 1840

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Burg Reichenstein, Burg Rheinstein and the Klemenskapelle, near Trechtingshausen on the River Rhine; Burg Reichenstein’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 62 Verso:
Burg Reichenstein, Burg Rheinstein and the Klemenskapelle, near Trechtingshausen on the River Rhine; Burg Reichenstein 1840
D30578
Turner Bequest CCCIII 61a
Pencil on flecked pale blue laid paper, 170 x 104 mm
Partial watermark (countermark): indecipherable maker’s name
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
There are two drawings here, made at right-angles. As identified by Cecilia Powell,1 the one at the top looks south up the River Rhine, past Burg Reichenstein, since much restored, above Trechtingshausen, with a slight indication of the spire of the riverside Klemenskapelle (or Clemenskapelle) at the centre, and Burg Rheinstein on the hillside beyond. With the page turned horizontally, the keep of Burg Reichenstein is shown on a larger scale.
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 Rheinstein is also shown on folios 63 verso, 64 recto and 65 verso (D30580–D30581, D30584; CCCIII 62a, 63, 64a). For other views, see the 1833 Brussels up to Mannheim – Rhine sketchbook (Tate D29733–D29734, D29767; Turner Bequest CCXCVI 70a, 71, 89a), the 1835 Prague, Nuremberg, Frankfurt and Rhine sketchbook (D30652, D30654; CCCIV 11a, 12a), and the 1839 Trèves to Cochem and Coblenz to Mayence sketchbook (D28494; CCXC 72a). Burg Reichenstein appears again on folio 63 recto opposite (D30579; CCCIII 62), and in the 1817 Rhine sketchbook (D12946–D12947; CLXI 34a, 35), Brussels up to Mannheim – Rhine (D29729, D29732–D29733, D29767; CCXCVI 68a, 70, 70a, 89a), Prague, Nuremberg, Frankfurt and Rhine (D30653–D30654; CCCIV 12, 12a), and Trèves to Cochem and Coblenz to Mayence (D28494–D28496; CCXC 72a–73a). For another Klemenskapelle view, see the 1833 Brussels up to Mannheim – Rhine book (Tate D29733; Turner Bequest CCXCVI 70a).
Two related watercolours of about 1841 show the Klemenskapelle and the two castles from the north (Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery4 and private collection5).

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.461 no.1337, as ‘Cochem on the Moselle’, ?1844, reproduced.
5
Not in Wilton 1979; Powell 1995, reproduced in colour p.186, p.187 no.114.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Burg Reichenstein, Burg Rheinstein and the Klemenskapelle, near Trechtingshausen on the River Rhine; Burg Reichenstein 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-reichenstein-burg-rheinstein-and-the-klemenskapelle-r1196335, accessed 19 April 2024.