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 Klopp and Bingen, on the River Rhine 1840

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Burg Klopp and Bingen, on the River Rhine’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 67 Verso:
Burg Klopp and Bingen, on the River Rhine 1840
D30588
Turner Bequest CCCIII 66a
Pencil on flecked pale blue laid paper, 104 x 170 mm
Partial watermark: Tree of Liberty
 
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 outline of Burg Klopp above Bingen, along the south bank of the River Rhine, with what seem to be indications of the two spires of the Basilica of St Martin north-west of the ruin, which has since been restored.
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.
For other Burg Klopp views, see the 1817 Waterloo and Rhine and Rhine sketchbooks (respectively Tate D12827, D12831, D12833, D12835, D12840–D12841; Turner Bequest CLX 65, 67, 68, 69, 71a, 72; D12944–D12945; CLXI 33a, 34), the 1833 Brussels up to Mannheim – Rhine sketchbook (D29739, D29741–D29742, D29745; CCXCVI 73a, 74a, 75, 76a), the 1835 Prague, Nuremberg, Frankfurt and Rhine sketchbook (D30644–D30645, D30647; CCCIV 7a, 8, 9), the 1839 Trèves to Cochem and Coblenz to Mayence sketchbook (D28493; CCXC 72), and a watercolour study in the 1844 Heidelberg sketchbook (D35239; CCCLII 19).
A finished 1817 watercolour, Rüdesheim, Looking towards the Binger Loch, includes the castle (National Museum Wales, Cardiff).4 For other Bingen views in this sketchbook and elsewhere, see under folio 65 recto (D30583; CCCIII 64).

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.374 no.639, as ‘Rudesheim, Looking to Bingen Klopp’, reproduced.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Burg Klopp and Bingen, 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-klopp-and-bingen-on-the-river-rhine-r1196345, accessed 25 April 2024.