- Museum number
- 1958,0712.415
- Description
-
Hirzenach below St Goar; mountains enclosing a river, a bridge crossing a tributary at left, figures near boats before it. 1817
Watercolour touched with bodycolour, with scraping-out, on white paper prepared with a grey wash
- Production date
- 1817
- Dimensions
-
Height: 210 millimetres
-
Width: 325 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- Sloan 1998
Widely acclaimed as the finest road in Europe, the route Napoleon ran along the west bank of the Rhine from Cologne to Mainz. As Turner's tour along the river in 1817 was made mainly on foot, frequently walking as many as thirty-five miles a day, he had reason to be grateful to the French engineers who during their occupation of the Rhineland had blasted through the basaltic rocks and levelled the surface of the old mountain road. Where swollen torrents had once swept over it, taking much of the surface of the road with them, the French had built arched sewers for the torrents to pass beneath it; one of these is clearly visible on the left of this view, which was based on a sketch showing the bend of the river at Hirzenach, looking downstream from the west bank.¹
In fact the road might be described as the main subject of this watercolour, which otherwise depicts what at first appears to be one of the less remarkable stretches of the river, featuring no castles or other notable sites. Hirzenach itself was situated close to an ancient priory and was apparently picturesquely surrounded by the huts of vine-dressers. Apart from a hint of vines climbing the slopes on the left, none of this was visible from the spot Turner chose for his picture, which seems to focus instead on the achievements of engineers. However, closer inspection indicates that this feat of engineering was not allowed to dominate the view completely. The guidebooks pointed out that Hirzenach was located on a part of the Rhine where the river formed a beautiful bay. Turner inserted his usual reference to the local "commerce and manufactures" in the form of the fishermen on the river and upon the bank, some of their silvery-blue catch spilling out of the basket in the foreground, and he emphasised the calm expanse of the river here by placing other fishermen in a boat to draw our eyes to the far right and the sunlit bend in the distance. The grey that he used as a mid-tone preparation on this side of the sheet only, and the overall lightness which was the result of leaving the lower edge and right corner blank, lend a poetic peacefulness to the watercolour. The guidebooks also noted that the river here was surrounded by heights rich in silver, copper, marble, slate, lime and lead. Touches of bodycolour in pinks, yellows, ochres and deep reds and browns remind us of the wealth of the minerals underground and in the rich fertile earth.
1.TB CLX 60 (1); see Powell 1991, pp. 19, 197.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1889, RA, no.50
1902, Lawrie & Co., no.48
1951, Agnew's, no.54
1998 May-Sept., BM, J.M.W.Turner: Lloyd Bequest, no.16
- Acquisition date
- 1958
- Acquisition notes
- UNDER THE TERMS OF THE BEQUEST, NONE OF THE PRINTS OR DRAWINGS BEQUEATHED BY R. W. LLOYD MAY BE LENT OUTSIDE THE BRITISH MUSEUM (Registration Numbers 1958,0712.318 to 3149).
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1958,0712.415
