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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > The Second Meuse-Moselle Tour 1839 > Cochem to Coblenz - Home Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Kobern, Looking Downstream from the Hillside 1839

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Kobern, Looking Downstream from the Hillside’ 1839
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 28 Verso:
Kobern, Looking Downstream from the Hillside 1839
D28591
Turner Bequest CCXCI 28 a
Pencil on cream laid writing paper, 100 x 156 mm
Watermarked ‘v d m[eulen]’
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This sketch shows the Moselle village of Kobern, taken from a vantage point on the hillside looking downstream. The lofty donjon tower of the Niederburg (the lower castle) is seen in profile atop a conical mount. Behind it, in the distance, is the Oberburg (the upper castle) and the chapel of St Matthew. Towards the town itself, built into the steep gradient of a cliff, is Romanesque bell tower or Glockenturm. The view shown is similar to Tate D28594; Turner Bequest CCXCI 30.
There is a gouache and watercolour drawing of Kobern from the South (Tate D20271; Turner Bequest CCXXII L) produced in the winter of 1839. Kobern is also recorded in the First Mossel and Oxford sketchbook (Tate D28300–D28301; Turner Bequest CCLXXXIX 5a–6) and the earlier Rivers Meuse and Moselle sketchbook of 1824 (Tate D19812 – D19815; Turner Bequest CCXVI 131–132a).

Alice Rylance-Watson
August 2013

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Kobern, Looking Downstream from the Hillside 1839 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, August 2013, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, November 2014, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-kobern-looking-downstream-from-the-hillside-r1150875, accessed 26 April 2024.