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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and French ... > Holland Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The River Rhine with a Distant Tower; Studies of Sailing Boats 1825

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The River Rhine with a Distant Tower; Studies of Sailing Boats’ 1825
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 134 Recto:
The River Rhine with a Distant Tower; Studies of Sailing Boats 1825
D19104
Turner Bequest CCXIV 134
Pencil on white wove paper, 95 x 155 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘34’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCXIV – 134’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned horizontally, the rapid and disjointed sketches include studies of boats under sail and what seems to be a distant tower along a low horizon, perhaps with a bank of the Rhine in the foreground. Like various sketches on adjacent pages, the setting is likely the meandering river south of Kleve (see under folio 132 verso; D19101) as Turner travelled upstream to Düsseldorf (see under folio 138 recto; D19112), about fifty miles south-south-east as the crow flies. See this sketchbook’s Introduction for discussion of its many shipping studies.

Matthew Imms
September 2020

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The River Rhine with a Distant Tower; Studies of Sailing Boats 1825 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2020, 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-river-rhine-with-a-distant-tower-studies-of-sailing-r1202456, accessed 04 April 2026.