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

This slight sketch shows the Reichsburg overlooking the city of Cochem. The top of the castle’s keep continues onto the folio opposite (Tate D41217). Reichsburg Castle was first mentioned in a document of 1051 and was for many years the established seat of the palatinate counts until the first German King Konrad III declared it an imperial castle.1 It fell into ruin after an occupation by the French King Louis XIV over the course of the Nine Years War and remained in a decaying state until 1868 when it was rebuilt in the Gothic Revival architectural style.2

For other 1839 pencil sketches of the Reichsburg see Tate D28543, D28544, D28546–D28548; Turner Bequest CCXCI 3a, 4, 5a–6a; the Trèves to Cochem and Coblenz to Mayence sketchbook (Tate D28358, D28361; Turner Bequest CCXC 4a, 6); the First Mossel and Oxford sketchbook (Tate D28318; CCLXXXIX 14a) and the earlier Rivers Meuse and Moselle sketchbook of 1824 (Tate D19792, D19794; Turner Bequest CCXVI 121, 122). For other gouaches of Cochem see Tate D20238, D20253, D24723, D24725, D24806, D28986; Turner Bequest CCXXI E, T, CLIX 158, 160, 241, CCXCII 39. See also the 1840 gouache Cochem from above the Enderttal (Tate D28992; Turner Bequest CCXCII 45).