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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > Venice, Austria and Southern Germany ... > The Route to Venice: The Rivers Mosel ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Burg at Cochem on the River Mosel from the South-East, beyond Sehl and the Brauselay Rocks 1840

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Burg at Cochem on the River Mosel from the South-East, beyond Sehl and the Brauselay Rocks’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
The Burg at Cochem on the River Mosel from the South-East, beyond Sehl and the Brauselay Rocks 1840
D28963
Turner Bequest CCXCII 16
Pencil, watercolour and gouache on grey wove paper, 150 x 191 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom right
Inscribed in red ink ‘16’ bottom right (now faint)
Stamped in black ‘CCXCII 16’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Finberg suggested that Beilstein, on the River Mosel, is shown,1 but Turner did not record any subjects beyond Cochem, roughly five miles downstream, on this trip; for Beilstein in relation to his 1839 tour, see Alice Rylance-Watson’s entry for Tate D20239 (Turner Bequest CCXXI F), a gouache study on blue paper.
Jean-Claude Muller and Jean Luc Koltz correctly identified Cochem here, but gave the castle as the nearby Winneberg,2 seen in the distance in Tate D28950 and D29020 (Turner Bequest CCXCII 3, 69), also of 1840. Cecilia Powell discussed the actual subject in greater detail, noting the viewpoint as being ‘slightly closer’ than in another colour study (D28987; CCXCII 40).3 Looking down the River Mosel, the view is flanked by the low bank towards Sehl on the left, with the spire of the Antoniuskirche the only notable landmark. To the north-west, above the bend to the right, are the ruins of the Burg (since elaborately restored and known as the Reichsburg) south of Cochem; the riverside town itself is obscured by the dramatic Brauselay rocks framing the view on the opposite bank.4
For numerous contemporary studies of Cochem see under D28950; and for the full range of Mosel subjects associated with the present tour, see the Introduction to this subsection.
1
Finberg 1909, II, p.938.
2
See Muller and Koltz 1984, p.108; as noted in Powell 1995, p.146.
3
See Powell 1995, p.146.
4
See ibid. for more on some of these features.
Technical notes:
The pencil work is quite loose. Sails towards the right were reserved against the dark bank and slope, and not developed further.
Cecilia Powell has noted this as one of the many sheets of grey 1829 Bally, Ellen and Steart paper used on Turner’s 1840 tour, neatly torn as eighths or sixteenths of the overall sheet, with dimensions of around 190 x 280 or 140 x 190 mm, and variously worked with pencil, watercolour and gouache; see the technical notes in the overall Introduction for others.1
1
See Powell 1995, p.145.
Verso:
Blank, with scattered pale brown staining; inscribed in pencil ’97 | b’ centre; stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram over ‘CCXCII – 16’ towards bottom left; inscribed in pencil ‘D.28963’ towards bottom left.

Matthew Imms
September 2018

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Burg at Cochem on the River Mosel from the South-East, beyond Sehl and the Brauselay Rocks 1840 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, December 2019, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-burg-at-cochem-on-the-river-mosel-from-the-south-east-r1196398, accessed 22 July 2024.