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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Ehrenbreitstein from the Mosel 1839

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 31 Recto:
Ehrenbreitstein from the Mosel 1839
D28596
Turner Bequest CCXCI 31
Pencil on cream laid writing paper, 100 x 156 mm
Watermarked with French imperial eagle
Inscribed in red ink by Ruskin ‘31’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCXCI–31’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This slight and roughly rendered sketch depicts the fortress of Ehrenbreitstein, or Festung Ehrenbreitstein, crowning a lofty ridge overlooking the confluence of the Rhine and Moselle Rivers. A citadel has dominated this site on the east bank of the Rhine opposite Koblenz since the eleventh century.1 Besieged by the French during their revolutionary wars, it was later expanded under the orders of the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III between 1817 and 1828 to guard the middle Rhine region. A figure can be seen at the foot of the cliff sailing a long river barge which is similar to the Rhine passenger boats shown on Tate D28611–D28612; Turner Bequest CCXCI 38a–39.

Alice Rylance-Watson
August 2013

1
‘Festung Ehrenbreitstein’, Koblenz-Touristik, accessed 11 August 2013, http://www.koblenz-touristik.de/en/places-of-interest/buildings-and-places/festung-ehrenbreitstein.html

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Ehrenbreitstein from the Mosel 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-ehrenbreitstein-from-the-mosel-r1150880, accessed 19 September 2024.