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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > Napoleon Recollections c.1841-2 > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner View from Hillside: Bridge of Boats with Troops, Looking North onto Ehrenbreitstein c.1841-2

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘View from Hillside: Bridge of Boats with Troops, Looking North onto Ehrenbreitstein’ c.1841-2
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
View from Hillside: Bridge of Boats with Troops, Looking North onto Ehrenbreitstein c.1841–2
D27553
Turner Bequest CCLXXX 36
Pencil and watercolour on paper, 218 x 287 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘March of [?]troops on Coblenz’ lower centre
Stamped in black ‘CCLXXX-36’ bottom right
Inscribed in red ‘36’ bottom right
Stamped with Turner Bequest monogram lower right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This is one of thirteen loose sheets found grouped together, a number of which are believed to be ideas for compositions relating to the life of Napoleon; for more information see the Introduction to this section.
Like a number of other studies catalogued in this section (Tate D27543–D27544, D27549, D27555; Turner Bequest CCLXXX 26–27, 32, 38), this scene appears to be set looking north towards Ehrenbreitstein, with the Bridge of Boats at Coblenz (which became a bridge of wooden pontoons in 18191), possibly indicated on the left. The use of red watercolour in the foreground appears suggestive of troops marching.
For further information about Turner’s visits to the Rhine and the area’s associations with the Napoleonic Wars, see the Introduction to this section and the entry for Tate D27544 (Turner Bequest CCLXXX 27).
1
Cecilia Powell, Turner in Germany, London 1995, p.12.
Verso:
Blank, save for inscriptions: inscribed in pencil ‘CCLXXX 36’ lower right

Elizabeth Jacklin
September 2018

How to cite

Elizabeth Jacklin, ‘View from Hillside: Bridge of Boats with Troops, Looking North onto Ehrenbreitstein c.1841–2 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, November 2019, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-view-from-hillside-bridge-of-boats-with-troops-looking-north-r1195854, accessed 21 November 2024.