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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Southern Germany, Austria and Venice ... > Rotterdam and Rhine sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner ?The Marksburg above Braubach, from the River Rhine 1833

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘?The Marksburg above Braubach, from the River Rhine’ 1833
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 20 Recto:
?The Marksburg above Braubach, from the River Rhine 1833
D32580
Turner Bequest CCCXXII 21
Pencil on white laid paper, 105 x 170 mm
Partial watermark: base of unicorn motif
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘21’ top right, ascending vertically (smudged and faint)
Stamped in black ‘CCCXXII – 21’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This slight horizontal sketch appears to show the medieval Marksburg castle (sometimes given in the Turner literature and older sources as ‘Marxburg’), high on the east bank of the River Rhine above Braubach, roughly ten miles south of Coblenz (Koblenz; see under folio 22 verso; D32585; CCCXXII 23a). For other views of the castle in this book and elsewhere, see under folio 18 verso (D32577; CCCXXII 19a).
As set out in its Introduction, this sketchbook covers Turner’s homeward route from Augsburg north-westwards to Rotterdam (see under folios 1 verso and 14 recto respectively; D32543, D32568; CCCXXII 2a, 15). Travelling back down the familiar river, he worked in somewhat randomly from both ends, interspersing identifiable subjects with less distinctive renderings of towns, castles and the landscape.

Matthew Imms
November 2019

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘?The Marksburg above Braubach, from the River Rhine 1833 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, November 2019, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, March 2023, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-marksburg-above-braubach-from-the-river-rhine-r1204046, accessed 27 May 2026.