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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Southern Germany, Austria and Venice ... > Rotterdam and Rhine sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Rüdesheim from the River Rhine, with the Mäuseturm Downstream beyond Bingen; the Boosenburg and Brömserburg in Rüdesheim; Arnhem from the River Nederrijn 1833

Image 1 of 2
  • Enhanced image
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Rüdesheim from the River Rhine, with the Mäuseturm Downstream beyond Bingen; the Boosenburg and Brömserburg in Rüdesheim; Arnhem from the River Nederrijn’ 1833
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 11 Verso:
Rüdesheim from the River Rhine, with the Mäuseturm Downstream beyond Bingen; the Boosenburg and Brömserburg in Rüdesheim; Arnhem from the River Nederrijn 1833
D32563
Turner Bequest CCCXXII 12a
Pencil on white laid paper, 105 x 170 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The page was largely used horizontally. Across the upper (outer) half is a view west down the River Rhine towards the right-hand bend near Bingen, where the slender Mäuseturm tower is shown reflected. The town of Rüdesheim lies along the bank in the right foreground, with a larger-scale detail below of the keep of the Brömserburg (now a wine museum), the stepped square tower of the Boosenburg (since restored and incorporated into a Victorian mansion), and the spire of St Jakobus’s Church. The two castles are shown on a larger scale to the left.
See also folio 12 recto opposite (D32564; CCCXXII 13) and folio 16 recto (D32572; CCCXXII 17). The views are intermingled with a few around Bingen, just downstream on the opposite bank; see under folio 12 verso (D32565; CCCXXII 13a). Schloss Johannisberg, not far to the east, is shown on folios 15 verso and 60 recto (D32571, D32657; CCCXXII 16a, 61), with what may be another view in this direction on the latter page.
The three sketches here were presumably made while sailing past, and the overall prospect recalls Turner’s 1817 watercolour Rüdesheim, Looking towards the Binger Loch (National Museum Wales, Cardiff),1 based on small views in that year’s Waterloo and Rhine sketchbook (Tate D12838–D12841; Turner Bequest CLX 70a–71, 71a–72), the last of which also includes a detail of the castles. The artist had also travelled this way on the outward leg of the present tour, using the Brussels up to Mannheim – Rhine sketchbook, with views and studies of Rüdesheim and its wider setting (Tate D29598, D29737, D29739–D29740, D29744, Turner Bequest CCXCVI 2a, 72a, 73a, 74, 76), and others from around Bingen.
At right-angles at the bottom left, drawn with the page inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, is a continuation from a subsequent view of Arnhem to the east from the River Nederrijn, on folio 12 recto opposite (D32564; Turner Bequest CCCXXII 13), limited here to a few nondescript buildings and the low sun reflected with a characteristic zig-zag ripple. This is in accord with sketches around the city inside the front cover (D32541; CCCXXII 1), where the morning sun is both drawn and noted; see also folio 1 recto (D32542; CCCXXII 2). The subject and other views are discussed under D32541.
As set out in its Introduction, this sketchbook covers Turner’s homeward route from Augsburg north-westwards to Rotterdam (see under folios 1 verso and 14 recto respectively; D32543, D32568; CCCXXII 2a, 15). Travelling back down the familiar river, he worked in somewhat randomly from both ends, interspersing identifiable subjects with less distinctive renderings of towns, castles and the landscape.

Matthew Imms
November 2019

1
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.374 no.639, as ‘Rudesheim, Looking to Bingen Klopp’, reproduced.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Rüdesheim from the River Rhine, with the Mäuseturm Downstream beyond Bingen; the Boosenburg and Brömserburg in Rüdesheim; Arnhem from the River Nederrijn 1833 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, November 2019, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, March 2023, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-rudesheim-from-the-river-rhine-with-the-mauseturm-downstream-r1204029, accessed 22 July 2024.