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

The uppermost sketch shows a stretch of the Moselle flowing downstream towards the Druidenstein, or Druid’s Stone (traditionally a type of megalithic structure used in druidic culture and religious rites). What appears to be a canopied boat with figures within is at left in the foreground. The remaining sketches are of the Burg Bischofstein, which presides over the Moselle valley opposite the town of Burgen. The castle, identifiable by its tall cylindrical donjon tower and adjoining ruined chapel, was a stronghold of the Archbishops of Trier.1 Built in the late eleven hundreds and expanded in 1273, Bischofstein was later destroyed by the troops of Louis XIV of France during the Nine Years’ War.2

The chapel of Saint Paul, the Pauluskapelle, features in the sketch closest to the gutter of the book. Constructed around 1200, the chapel is located halfway up the mount to castle Bischofstein and was, in the medieval period, considered a site of pilgrimage for travellers seeking a cure for disease or infirmities.

For other sketches of the Bischofstein in this book see D28316, D28319; Turner Bequest CCLXXXIX 13a, 15; see also the 1839 Cochem to Coblenz – Home sketchbook (Tate D28562–D28566; Turner Bequest CCXCI 13a–15a). There are also two related colour drawings executed between 1839 and 1840 in gouache and watercolour (Tate D28966, D29021; Turner Bequest CCXCII 19, 70).