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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner

Joseph Mallord William Turner The River Rhine between Bautsburg and Mainz: Burg Klopp, Bingen and the Drusus Bridge over the River Nahe, from the Rhine; View up the Rhine to Burg Ehrenfels; Five Composition Studies, the Last showing the Bridge and Abbey at Bingen; Views up the Rhine to Kastel and Main, and downstream to Biebrich, and to Walluf and Eltville, and downstream from above Eltville 1817

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The River Rhine between Bautsburg and Mainz: Burg Klopp, Bingen and the Drusus Bridge over the River Nahe, from the Rhine; View up the Rhine to Burg Ehrenfels; Five Composition Studies, the Last showing the Bridge and Abbey at Bingen; Views up the Rhine to Kastel and Main, and downstream to Biebrich, and to Walluf and Eltville, and downstream from above Eltville’ 1817
Folio 70 Recto:
The River Rhine between Bautsburg and Mainz: Burg Klopp, Bingen and the Drusus Bridge over the River Nahe, from the Rhine; View up the Rhine to Burg Ehrenfels; Five Composition Studies, the Last showing the Bridge and Abbey at Bingen; Views up the Rhine to Kastel and Main, and downstream to Biebrich, and to Walluf and Eltville, and downstream from above Eltville 1817
D12833
Turner Bequest CLX 68
Pencil on white wove paper, 150 x 94 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Bingen’ centre right, and ‘Bibirah’, ‘Walluf’ and ‘Elfelt’ below successive sketches below
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘68’ top right, and ‘258’ bottom right
Inscribed by ?C.F. Bell in pencil ‘CLX’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CLX – 68’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The multiple small sketches on this page include broad views of the Rhine evidently made from a boat and small composition studies sketched within drawn outlines. Turner saw this scenery on 25 August as he approached Mainz. Top right within an outline is a view of the bridge over the Nahe, Bingen and Burg Klopp seen from the Rhine. The next view below looks up the Rhine to Burg Ehrenfels.
Next come five small composition studies in a grid, including at the right of the second row the origin of the watercolour Abbey at Bingen (private collection)1 sold by Turner to Walter Fawkes later in 1817. At the opposite end of that row is a brief extension of a view up the Rhine to Kastel and Mainz on folio 69 verso opposite (D12832; Turner Bequest CLX 67a). Next, taking up the whole width, are views downstream to Biebrich, and to Walluf and Eltville, both also continued from D12832; see catalogue entry. Across the bottom of this page is a downstream view from just above Eltville.
Splashes of yellow watercolour on this page were presumably made as Turner worked on his related watercolours.

David Blayney Brown
June 2025

1
Andrew Wilton, The Life and Work of J.M.W. Turner, Fribourg 1979, p.378 no.680, as untraced.

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘The River Rhine between Bautsburg and Mainz: Burg Klopp, Bingen and the Drusus Bridge over the River Nahe, from the Rhine; View up the Rhine to Burg Ehrenfels; Five Composition Studies, the Last showing the Bridge and Abbey at Bingen; Views up the Rhine to Kastel and Main, and downstream to Biebrich, and to Walluf and Eltville, and downstream from above Eltville 1817’, catalogue entry, June 2025, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, June 2026, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/the-river-rhine-between-bautsburg-and-mainz-burg-klopp-bingen-and-the-drusus-bridge-over-r1212205, accessed 31 July 2026.