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 and Saxon Switzerland Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Words and Phrases in German 1835

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Words and Phrases in German’ 1835
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 1 Recto:
Words and Phrases in German 1835
D30888
Turner Bequest CCCVI 1
Pencil on off-white wove paper, 170 x 104 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner with German phrases (transcribed in full in the main catalogue entry)
Inscribed in blue ink by Ruskin ‘1’ top right and ‘[...]’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCCVI 1’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Here Turner has inscribed words and phrases in German. The inscriptions continue on the folio opposite (Tate D30889; Turner Bequest CCCVI 1a). In the Copenhagen to Dresden sketchbook the artist also used the first few folios to write down phrases in English which were then translated into their German equivalent by a native acquaintance (see Tate D31020–D31026; Turner Bequest CCCVII 1–4). The inscriptions are transcribed:
‘Ich Wischin in Platz in
den Ilwaggen –
Wasistes –
Whats is es fur hinnere plaze
We what ist is –
Es <hat> is langer das vier
in commen
wol volonce se future
how fist [...]
Enge[...] – Storm
Rangenstirm Rainstorm
Bringen me ye no Eis’

Alice Rylance-Watson
August 2015

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Words and Phrases in German 1835 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, August 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-words-and-phrases-in-german-r1186761, accessed 16 May 2024.