Notable sales

Wonderfully evoking the character of this particular broad stretch of the river, according to the expert Cecilia Powell on Turner’s paintings in Germany and described as ‘by far the finest’ by Evelyn Joll the renowned Turner expert in 1980. The view is towards the southeast, with Mainz on the right and Kastel to the left. The dome of Mainz cathedral is just visible above and to the right of the small boat on the right of the picture, the twin towers of St Peter’s church are just discernable to the right of the trees on a spit of land that juts into the river in the middle distance. As Powell explains the topography reflects that also found in a drawing from Turner’s Mainz and Kastel’ sketchbook in the Turner Bequest, Tate Britain. This view was also found in an unpublished drawing, which was with WS Fine Art in 2007. The same view was also developed into a larger watercolour, Mainz and Kastel, two or three years later. Turner’s near view, Mainz on the Rhine, showing the major buildings as seen from the water’s edge, belonged to Walter Fawkes along with this work and was sold at Christie’s on 8^th November 1994 lot 59.

Significantly this work shares some of its early provenance with the exceptionally well known watercolours of the Blue Rigi and the Red Rigi as all belonged to John Edward Taylor who was the son of the founder of the Manchester News and in turn became proprietor himself. He owned a number of Turner’s works eighteen of which were given to the Whitworth Gallery, Manchester in 1892 and the others were sold during his lifetime as he had no children of his own.