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 > Meuse-Moselle Gouache and Watercolour ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Bernkastel and the Landshut, with a Hillside Shrine c.1839

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Bernkastel and the Landshut, with a Hillside Shrine’ c.1839
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Bernkastel and the Landshut, with a Hillside Shrine c.1839
D24782
Turner Bequest CCLIX 217
Gouache, pen and ink and watercolour on blue wove paper, 140 x 190 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCLIX 217’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Here Turner depicts the Moselle town of Bernkastel, dominated by the ancient ruins of the Castle Landshut; its tower is seen at right, highlighted in milky white gouache. A shrine, attended by a solitary figure and sheltered by four tall trees, is pictured in the foreground. The shrine’s interior is decorated with a simple wooden crucifix. A heavy mist appears to cloak the valley, partly obscuring the view of Bernkastel and its church. This Gothic church, dedicated to Saint-Michel and dating to 1177, is noted for its striking tower and turreted spire.1
Cecilia Powell suggests that this work could be ‘an alternative or preliminary version’ of another gouache picturing Bernkastel and the Landshut now in a private collection.2 There is a third gouache which incorporates Bernkastel’s sister village of Kues, also in a private collection.3 For related pencil sketches see Tate D28407–D28412; Turner Bequest CCXC 29–31a.
1
‘Pfarrkirche St. Michael’, Ferienland Bernkastel-Kues, accessed 17 September 2013, http://www.bernkastel.de/ferienland/bernkastel-kues-im-moselurlaub/sehenswertes/st-michael-kirche.html
2
Powell 1991, p.134 no.53; and Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.422 no.1030.
3
Wilton 1979, p.422 no.1029.
Verso:
Inscribed in pencil ‘?CCXXI?’ bottom centre and ‘CCLIX 217?’ bottom right. There are also markings in brown watercolour wash running from top to bottom towards the right.

Alice Rylance-Watson
September 2013

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Bernkastel and the Landshut, with a Hillside Shrine c.1839 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 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-bernkastel-and-the-landshut-with-a-hillside-shrine-r1151012, accessed 11 May 2024.