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 The East End of the Mosel Bridge at Coblenz, with the Gate Tower and the Alte Burg 1839

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The East End of the Mosel Bridge at Coblenz, with the Gate Tower and the Alte Burg’ 1839
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 39 Verso:
The East End of the Mosel Bridge at Coblenz, with the Gate Tower and the Alte Burg 1839
D28613
Turner Bequest CCXCI 39 a
Pencil on cream laid writing paper, 100 x 156 mm
Watermarked with French imperial eagle
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This rough sketch of Koblenz shows the east end of the stone bridge crossing the Moselle. Beyond is the Alte Burg, the ancient residence of the Arken family, built in the Romanesque style in 1185.1 It was converted into a castle in 1277 by an Elector of Trier and was then continually extended and adapted so that it eventually incorporated elements of late Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque architectural styles.2 By the time of Turner’s visit, the Alte Burg was under the control of the French and being used as a sheet metal factory.3 A gate tower can be seen to the right, defending the castle and access to the bridge.

Alice Rylance-Watson
August 2013

1
‘Alte Burg’, Koblenz-Touristik, accessed 13 August 2013, http://www.koblenz-touristik.de/en/places-of-interest/buildings-and-places/alte-burg.html
2
Ibid.
3
Ibid.

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘The East End of the Mosel Bridge at Coblenz, with the Gate Tower and the Alte Burg 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-the-east-end-of-the-mosel-bridge-at-coblenz-with-the-gate-r1150897, accessed 26 April 2024.