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 The Heimburg above Niederheimbach, on the River Rhine 1840

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Heimburg above Niederheimbach, on the River Rhine’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 61 Recto:
The Heimburg above Niederheimbach, on the River Rhine 1840
D30575
Turner Bequest CCCIII 60
Pencil on flecked pale blue laid paper, 104 x 170 mm
Partial watermark: Tree of Liberty
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘60’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCCIII – 60’ 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 Niederheimbach on the west bank of the River Rhine, with the cylindrical tower of the Heimburg castle (also known as Burg Hohneck) above the spire of the Maria Himmelfahrt church
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.
The Heimburg is also shown on the verso (D30576; CCCIII 60a). For other views, see the 1817 Waterloo and Rhine sketchbook (Tate D12837; Turner Bequest CLX 70), the 1833 Brussels up to Mannheim – Rhine sketchbook (D29730–D29731; CCXCVI 69, 69a), and the 1839 Trèves to Cochem and Coblenz to Mayence sketchbook (D28474; CCXC 62a). Niederheimbach appears on the verso, and on folio 62 recto (D30577; CCCIII 61), and on the Waterloo and Rhine and Brussels up to Mannheim – Rhine pages noted above.

Matthew Imms
September 2018

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

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Heimburg above Niederheimbach, 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-the-heimburg-above-niederheimbach-on-the-river-rhine-r1196332, accessed 19 August 2025.