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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > Venice, Austria and Southern Germany ... > Würzburg, Rhine and Ostend Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Castles on the River Rhine 1840

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Castles on the River Rhine’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 12 Recto:
Castles on the River Rhine 1840
D30479
Turner Bequest CCCIII 11
Pencil on flecked pale blue laid paper, 104 x 170 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘11’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCCIII – 11’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This page was used horizontally for various slight sketches of towers among hills. Cecilia Powell has noted that as Turner neared the end of this tour he followed ‘the familiar route of the Rhine between Mainz and Cologne. He almost certainly travelled by steamer, ... sketching most of the well-known sights perfunctorily as he passed.’1
Given that this sketchbook was used in reverse of its subsequent foliation, she has specified the overall range of this phase as ‘TB CCCIII 68v–20v; 11r’,2 namely the present page and folios 21 verso–69 verso (D30479, D30497–D30592; CCCIII 20a–68a); see the sketchbook’s Introduction for the full itinerary of that phase. The unidentified subjects here are isolated within a sequence largely comprising coastal views at Ostend, marking the conclusion of the Continental journey; see under folio 1 recto (D30460).3

Matthew Imms
September 2018

1
Powell 1995, p.72.
2
Ibid., p.82 note 70.
3
See also ibid., p.246.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Castles on the River Rhine 1840 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2018, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2019, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-castles-on-the-river-rhine-r1196239, accessed 27 April 2024.