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 Burg Rheinfels, on the River Rhine 1840

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Burg Rheinfels, on the River Rhine’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 49 Recto:
Burg Rheinfels, on the River Rhine 1840
D30552
Turner Bequest CCCIII 48
Pencil on flecked pale blue laid paper, 104 x 170 mm
Partial watermark (countermark): indecipherable maker’s name
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘48’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCCIII – 48’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The drawing was made with the page turned horizontally. As identified by Cecilia Powell,1 it shows the ruins of Burg Rheinfels, since restored, high on the west bank of the River Rhine north-west of Sankt Goar.
Powell has noted that Turner neared the end of this tour following ‘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.’2 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’,3 indicating folios 12 recto and 21 verso–69 verso (D30479, D30497–D30592; Turner Bequest CCCIII 20a–68a); see this book’s Introduction for the full itinerary of this part of the journey.
Burg Rheinfels is also shown on folios 49 verso, 50 recto and 51 recto (D30553–D30554, D30556; CCCIII 48a, 49, 50). For other views, see the 1817 Rhine sketchbook (Tate D12918–D12923, D12930–D12932, D12935–D12937, D12952–D12960; Turner Bequest CLXI 21a–24, 26c–27a, 29–30, 37a–42), the 1833 Brussels up to Mannheim – Rhine sketchbook (D29709–D29710, D29712–D29714; CCXCVI 58a, 59, 60–61), the 1839 Trèves to Cochem and Coblenz to Mayence sketchbook (D28455–D28457, D28506–D28507, D28509–D28510; CCXC 53–54, 78a, 79a, 79c, 79d), and the 1844 Rhine and Rhine Castles sketchbook (D35185, D35209, D35211, D35213–D35215; CCCLI 8a, 20a, 21a, 22a–23a).
There are three 1817 watercolours of the vicinity: Katz Castle and Rheinfels (private collection);4 Rheinfels Looking to Katz and Goarhausen (Yale Center for British Art, New Haven);5 and From Rheinfels Looking over St Goar to Katz (currently untraced).6 The 1839 watercolour Oberwesel on the Rhine has a pencil sketch on the verso showing Sankt Goar and Rheinfels (Indianapolis Museum of Art).7 There is a watercolour of about 1841, Burg Rheinfels on the Rhine (private collection),8 another of about 1844, Burg Rheinfels (National Museum Wales, Cardiff),9 and an undated one watermarked 1833, A Castle on the Rhine, probably Rheinfels (currently untraced).10

Matthew Imms
September 2018

1
Powell 1995, p.246.
2
Ibid., p.72.
3
Ibid., p.82 note 70.
4
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.375 no.649, reproduced.
5
Ibid., no.650, reproduced.
6
Ibid., p.378 no.677, reproduced.
7
Ibid., p.462 no.1347, as ‘Rheinfels’, ?1844, reproduced.
8
Ibid., p.459 no.1327, as ‘A castle in the mountains’, ?1844, reproduced.
9
Ibid., pp.461–2 no.1345, as ‘Ehrenbreitstein’, reproduced.
10
Not in Wilton 1979; see Turner Studies, vol.2, no.1, Summer 1982, p.58.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Burg Rheinfels, 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-burg-rheinfels-on-the-river-rhine-r1196309, accessed 23 September 2024.