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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Northern Germany, the Elbe and Prague ... > Prague, Nuremberg, Frankfurt and Rhine ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner View down the Rhine with Rolandseck, Nonnenwerth, Drachenfels and the Seven Hills (in Two Instalments) 1835

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘View down the Rhine with Rolandseck, Nonnenwerth, Drachenfels and the Seven Hills (in Two Instalments)’ 1835
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 73 Recto:
View down the Rhine with Rolandseck, Nonnenwerth, Drachenfels and the Seven Hills (in Two Instalments) 1835
D30769
Turner Bequest CCCIV 73
Pencil on cream laid paper, 118 x 190 mm
Watermark with the Lion of the Seven Provinces | ‘[jan h]onig’ | ‘[jh]&z’
Inscribed in red ink by Ruskin ‘73’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCCIV–73’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This is a view of the Rhine Valley in Germany, produced in two instalments to depict one prospect. The uppermost section shows the ruins of Rolandseck Castle atop the hill at left, Nonnenwerth Island at centre, and Drachenfels (‘Dragon’s Rock’) at right. Nonnenwerth is named after an order or Benedictine nuns which established a convent on the tiny river island in the eleven hundreds. The lower section shows part of the Siebengebirge, a range of Seven Hills within the Rhine Valley.
For more sketches of this area see Tate D12663, D12680, D12756, D12757, D12760–D12763, D12768–D12775, D12860, D12862–D12864, D12866–D12867, D12885, D12887, D19840, D28615–D28617, D28621–D28623, D28625–D28626, D28632, D29663, D29681, D29684–D29685, D29715, D30500–D30510, D30513, D30642–D30643, D30680, D30682, D30769, D30791, D34367, D34374; Turner Bequest CLIX 83a, 92, CLX 29a–30, 31a–33, 35a–39, 81a, 82a–83a, 84a, 85, CLXI 2, 3, CCXVI 145, CCXCI 40a–41a, 43a–44a, 45a–46, CCXCVI 18, 34, 44, 45a–46, 61a, CCCIII 22–27, 28a, CCCIV 6a–7, 27, 28, 73, 84a, CCCXLIV 24, 31. See also Tate impression T06180, and other finished watercolours at the Courtauld Gallery, London, and Stanford University, California.1

Alice Rylance-Watson
December 2015

1
Wilton 1979, p.377 no.666 and p.378 no.675; there is also a watercolour depicting Rolandswerth Nunnery and Drachenfels in a private collection (see Wilton 1979, p.377 no.666).

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘View down the Rhine with Rolandseck, Nonnenwerth, Drachenfels and the Seven Hills (in Two Instalments) 1835 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, December 2015, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, August 2017, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-view-down-the-rhine-with-rolandseck-nonnenwerth-drachenfels-r1187144, accessed 19 September 2024.