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 Sankt Goar and Burg Rheinfels, on the River Rhine 1840

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Sankt Goar and Burg Rheinfels, on the River Rhine’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 51 Recto:
Sankt Goar and Burg Rheinfels, on the River Rhine 1840
D30556
Turner Bequest CCCIII 50
Pencil on flecked pale blue laid paper, 104 x 170 mm
Partial watermark: Tree of Liberty
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘50’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCCIII – 50’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This rapid drawing was made with the page turned horizontally. As identified by Cecilia Powell,1 it shows Sankt Goar, on the west bank of the Rhine, with the spire of its church aligned with the skyline ruins of Burg Rheinfels, downriver to the north-west.
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.
Sankt Goar is also shown on folio 49 verso (D30553; CCCIII 48a), under which drawings elsewhere are noted; for Burg Rheinfels, see under folio 49 recto (D30552; CCCIII 48).

Matthew Imms
September 2018

1
Powell 1995, p.246.
2
Ibid., p.72.
3
Ibid., p.82 note 70.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Sankt Goar and Burg Rheinfels, 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-sankt-goar-and-burg-rheinfels-on-the-river-rhine-r1196313, accessed 05 April 2026.