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

With the sketchbook orientated inversely in relation to the foliation, the first drawing depicts Zeltingen looking upstream on the Moselle. The picturesque village with its huddled houses and spired church is at left and beyond it are the remains of a fort-like structure, the Kunibertsburg, built into the hillside. The view on folio 28 verso (Tate D28406; Turner Bequest CCXC 28a) shows the village and fort from the opposite perspective, forming the basis of a gouache drawing of c.1839 (Westfälisches Landesmuseum, Münster).

The sketch below depicts the village of Wehlen upstream from Zeltingen, on the opposite bank. A small chapel is at left and in the foreground Turner has summarily sketched boats moored at the banks of the Moselle. Beneath them he has inscribed ‘Wm waiting at the Ferry’ for a service to take him further upstream. The final sketch shows Ürzig nestled within the valley, a ‘Mill’ to the left. There is a rather indecipherable inscription above the mill which has been struck through by Turner; it seems to read ‘[Keir...]’.

For earlier views of Zeltingen see the Rivers Meuse and Moselle sketchbook of 1824 (Tate D19760 – D19761; Turner Bequest CCXVI 106 – 106a) and the Moselle (or Rhine) sketchbook of the same date (Tate D20183; Turner Bequest CCXIX 22).