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

With the page turned horizontally, the main view occupying the lower two thirds shows Cologne to the west across the River Rhine, as recognised by Finberg.1 To the right are the Romanesque Great St Martin church and the smaller medieval spire of the Rathaus, away from the river to its west in turn. The viewpoint is along the east bank at Deutz, with only the first few wooden pontoons of the bridge of boats shown in any detail in the foreground, and the gentle bend of the flexible roadway emphasised by the low angle.

Opened in 1822,2 the ‘Deutzer Schiffbrücke’ remained in place until the opening of the Deutzer Hängebrücke suspension bridge in 1915,3 as seen in early photographs of this reach, at about the point where today’s Deutzer Brücke crosses from just south of Deutz Abbey. The photographs show a barge with a long, low cabin like the one depicted here, tethered or anchored midriver on the downstream side. A more extensive view in the contemporary Holland, Meuse and Cologne sketchbook (Tate D19459–D19460; Turner Bequest CCXV 32a–33) includes the bridge and barge from a little to the left, while it is out of sight upstream in another (D19510–D19511; CCXV 66a–67) from further right.

The prospect is continued upstream to the left at the top (outer) edge, where the Bayenturm tower is the most prominent landmark (see under folio 154 verso; D19145). To its left, twenty miles or so upstream to the south-south-east beyond Bonn, are the undulating Siebengebirge (Seven Hills); compare the backgrounds of folios 143 recto and 149 verso (D19122, D19135), and the profiles on folio 151 recto (D19138), and see also Tate D19462 (Turner Bequest CCXV 34a) in the Holland, Meuse and Cologne book. There are two small sketches squeezed in below this extension, with low buildings on the left and, partly framed by pencil lines on the right, a thumbnail composition of what seem to be fortifications with distant spires below a cloudy sky. Annotated studies of jars and a jug or flagon are introduced somewhat randomly in the space at the bottom right.

The bridge of boats is seen upstream in the distance, across the left-hand side of the composition, in Turner’s large oil painting of Cologne, the Arrival of a Packet Boat, Evening, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1826 (Frick Collection, New York),4 which looks south past St Martin’s along the west bank to the Bayenturm from near Cologne Cathedral. The painting is discussed under D19122, one of the directly related sketches.

Cecilia Powell has suggested that a loose colour study showing the city skyline beyond the bridge of boats was likely made some time between 1824 (the first time Turner would have seen the bridge as he passed through the city, albeit without sketching it) and about 1832 (Tate D25312; Turner Bequest CCLXIII 190); as Powell observes, it is shown there crossing further upstream than in reality, apparently for pictorial effect, towards Cologne Cathedral (out of sight to the right here) rather than south of St Martin’s.5 Two undated pencil and chalk sketches on grey paper (D33685, D33918; CCCXLI 10, 212) depict the bridge and the city, while another grey sheet (D34183; CCCXLI 444) appears to show the converse view towards Deutz Abbey.

Despite nineteenth-century redevelopment, substantial damage during the Second World War and later bridges, features of Cologne’s main river prospects remain recognisable. See under folio 141 recto (D19118) for discussion of views of the city from this tour and other occasions,6 and the sketchbook’s Introduction for discussion of its many shipping studies.