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

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

Joseph Mallord William Turner Two Views of the Lorelei on the Ricer Rhine, Approached from Upstream; ?The Lorelei, from Upstream; Storm over the Hills at Peterspay; Burg Marksburg and Braubach Church 1817

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Two Views of the Lorelei on the Ricer Rhine, Approached from Upstream; ?The Lorelei, from Upstream; Storm over the Hills at Peterspay; Burg Marksburg and Braubach Church’ 1817
Folio 77 Recto:
Two Views of the Lorelei on the Ricer Rhine, Approached from Upstream; ?The Lorelei, from Upstream; Storm over the Hills at Peterspay; Burg Marksburg and Braubach Church 1817
D12847
Turner Bequest CLX 75
Pencil on white wove paper, 150 x 94 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil (see main catalogue entry)
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘75’ top right, and ‘258’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CLX – 75’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner made the top two sketches from a boat on the Rhine as he returned downstream from Mainz to St Goar on 27 August 1817. For the Lorelei in this sketchbook see, principally, another downstream view on folio 1 verso (D12703). Adjacent sketches on folio 76 verso opposite (D12846; Turner Bequest CLX 74a), terminating with one extended here below the centre, were made as Turner drew nearer to the great rock here labelled ‘Lurelligh’ (sic) above right of centre. The verso (D12848) shows it as his boat passed beneath.
At the bottom right, the smaller sketches here are of subjects further downstream. Turner spent the night of 27 August at St Goar, and the next day continued his return journey on foot along the west bank of the Rhine towards Coblenz. In the upper of two views, including ‘Dinkholder Vineyard’ beside the river, Turner has observed the same stormy weather that produced the rainbow he saw between Osterspay and Braubach; see folios 75 verso‒76 recto (D12844‒D12845; CLX 73a–74). Below, the last sketch shows Braubach itself with Burg Marksburg looming over it. For the castle in this sketchbook see folio 53 recto (D12801).

David Blayney Brown
July 2025

How to cite

David Blayney Brown, ‘Two Views of the Lorelei on the Ricer Rhine, Approached from Upstream; ?The Lorelei, from Upstream; Storm over the Hills at Peterspay; Burg Marksburg and Braubach Church 1817’, catalogue entry, July 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/two-views-of-the-lorelei-on-the-ricer-rhine-approached-from-upstream-the-lorelei-from-r1212219, accessed 31 July 2026.