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

With similarly nimble handling to that seen in the sketches of Cochem (Tate D28359–D28363; Turner Bequest 5–7), these four landscape sketches depict the villages of Beilstein, Bruttig, and Ellenz located along the Moselle a few miles south of Cochem. Turner drew these with the sketchbook turned upside down.

The uppermost register contains a drawing of Beilstein taken from Fankel. The artist recorded the name of the village as ‘Fangl’ in a note at the side of the drawing. The tower seen in silhouette in the distance is likely the ruined castle of Beilstein, the Burg Metternich, once the property, as Bartholomew Stritch writes, ‘of the Electors of Treves, but was held for them by the noble vassals the counts of Matternich and Winneburg’.1

Below is a sketch of Bruttig taken from the outskirts of the village of Ernst. Located at the banks of the Moselle, the town is cradled by a gently sloping valley. The spired church is probably Saint Margaret’s. Turner has again inscribed the side of the sketch with his approximation of the town’s name, ‘Prudich’. The central sketch is of the Moselle at Ellenz, with what appear to be boats at the right; the buildings are likely those which line the Moselweinstraße, including the seventeenth-century Saint Sebastian’s Chapel. Turner has inscribed the drawings with ‘Ellenz’ and ‘Erentz’.

The final sketch is of the Burg Metternich, the fortification seen in the distance of the first drawing of Beilstein. Turner has recorded its crumbling architecture: the keep, towers, and curtain wall.