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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Northern Germany, the Elbe and Prague ... > Dresden, Teplitz and Prague Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Dresden: View across the Elbe to the Frauenkirche, Schloss, Hofkirche and Bridge; Dresden: The Zwinger from beyond the Moat to the North-West, with the Hofkirche and Schloss Seen over It 1835

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Dresden: View across the Elbe to the Frauenkirche, Schloss, Hofkirche and Bridge; Dresden: The Zwinger from beyond the Moat to the North-West, with the Hofkirche and Schloss Seen over It’ 1835
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 5 Verso:
Dresden: View across the Elbe to the Frauenkirche, Schloss, Hofkirche and Bridge; Dresden: The Zwinger from beyond the Moat to the North-West, with the Hofkirche and Schloss Seen over It 1835
D30305
Turner Bequest CCCI 5 a
Pencil on cream wove paper, 100 x 159 mm
Partial Watermark ‘af’
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘Elbe[...]’ bottom left
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Here Turner depicts the Saxon city of Dresden in two views. The uppermost sketch shows the River Elbe, with the domed Frauenkirche, Schloss or City Palace, the imperial Hofkirche and Augustus Bridge. The artist has inscribed ‘Elbe[...]’ at bottom left. A second view, which extends onto the folio opposite (Tate D30306; Turner Bequest CCCI 6), shows the Zwinger, a complex of baroque palaces arranged around a courtyard and formal gardens. It was used by the imperial court as an exhibition gallery, orangery and venue for parties. Turner depicts the Zwinger from beyond the Moat, with the Hofkirche and Schloss in the middle distance at left.
For more sketches of Dresden see Tate D30296–D30308, D30896–D30900, D31013, D31024–D31042; Turner Bequest CCCI 1–7, CCCVI 6a–9, 65a, CCCVII 3–12.

Alice Rylance-Watson
September 2015

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Dresden: View across the Elbe to the Frauenkirche, Schloss, Hofkirche and Bridge; Dresden: The Zwinger from beyond the Moat to the North-West, with the Hofkirche and Schloss Seen over It 1835 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2015, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, August 2017, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-dresden-view-across-the-elbe-to-the-frauenkirche-schloss-r1186689, accessed 19 May 2024.