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

D20139–D20161; D41501

CCXVIII 1–23

Roll sketchbook bound in grey-brown paper with navy fabric spine
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘Trèves and Rhine’ at centre of front cover (barely visible)
Inscribed in pencil, probably by Turner, ‘T’ at top left of inside front cover
Stamped in black ‘CCXVIII’ at top right front cover and top towards left of inside front cover
Inscribed in pencil ‘CCXVII’ at top right of front cover at top centre towards left of inside front cover
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom right of inside back cover
22 leaves of white wove drawing paper, rectos prepared with grey watercolour wash
Approximate size of page 220 x 291 mm

Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856

The Trèves and Rhine is one of the four sketchbooks used by Turner on his 1824 tour of the Meuse-Moselle (or Mosel, as it is known in Germany) and middle Rhine regions. It is believed to be one of the earliest soft covered ‘roll’ sketchbooks that the artist employed on a Continental tour.1 This type of book was far more convenient for travelling and sketching on the go as it could be rolled up quickly and stored in a pocket. The sketchbook is bound in grey-brown card and has a navy-coloured fabric spine. The leaves are white wove drawing paper. Turner prepared the recto of each page with a layer of translucent grey wash, as he had done with the Moselle (or Rhine) sketchbook taken on the same tour.

The drawings are predominantly executed in pencil, and some are highlighted with short flecks and hatches of chalk. There are also four striking pictures in watercolour and gouache of Trier and the outskirts of Koblenz (Tate D20139, D20140, D20146, D20148; Turner Bequest CCXVIII 1, 2, 8, 10). Tones of teal, mauve, olive, sage, rust, plum, grey, umber, ochre and gold are present in all four. The likenesses in palette suggest that Turner worked up pencil under-drawings with the coloured pigments in one or two sittings at his lodgings. He also appears to have turned the page or closed the sketchbook relatively soon after painting each view as the wet watercolour and gouache has transferred onto the sheet opposite.

As the title describes, this sketchbook was used to record the ancient Roman city of Trier as well as views of the Rhine valley and castles near Koblenz in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate. Turner’s views of Trier are taken chiefly at Pallien, situated on the opposite bank of the Moselle to the city (Tate D20149–D20154; Turner Bequest CCXVIII 11–16). Many of the drawings incorporate parts of Pallien in the foreground, particularly the Napoleonsbrücke, a road bridge constructed in 1804 by the French Emperor in order connect Trier and Aachen during the French occupation of the Rhineland (see Tate D20145; Turner Bequest CCXVIII 7). Trier’s classical past, meanwhile, is represented in Turner’s study of the Porta Nigra, a Roman city gate, and in monuments such as the Römerbrücke seen at a distance in the landscape sketches taken at Pallien (Tate D20141–D20142; Turner Bequest CCXVIII 3–4). Turner’s inscription of the single letter ‘T’ (with prominent serifs) on the inside front cover of the sketchbook may also indicate the beginning of a transcription of Roman decoration seen in Trier.2

The remaining pages are used for sketches of the towns of Lahnstein and Kapellen, approximately six kilometres south of Koblenz. The medieval Burg Lahneck (Tate D20155; Turner Bequest CCXVIII 17) and Burg Stolzenfels (Tate D20158; Turner Bequest CCXVIII 20) are the primary focus of Turner’s pencil, given these fortifications’ dramatic positions atop vertiginous cliffs overlooking the Rhine.