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 ... > Prague, Nuremberg, Frankfurt and Rhine ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Nuremberg: The Kaiserstallung and Burg from the North (the Vestnertorgraben) (Continued in the Sky above) 1835

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Nuremberg: The Kaiserstallung and Burg from the North (the Vestnertorgraben) (Continued in the Sky above)’ 1835
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 49 Verso:
Nuremberg: The Kaiserstallung and Burg from the North (the Vestnertorgraben) (Continued in the Sky above) 1835
D30723
Turner Bequest CCCIV 49
Pencil on cream laid paper, 118 x 190 mm
Watermark with the Lion of the Seven Provinces | ‘jh[&z]’
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘Der Ziegen | Thurn’ | ‘und de Kisserstellung’ top left; ‘der Burg nordlich’ top centre towards right; ‘Stone’ bottom right
Inscribed in red ink by Ruskin ‘49’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCCIV–49’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This sketch shows Nuremberg’s castle (Burg) and the buildings of the imperial city. Built on a high sandstone rock overlooking Nuremberg, this was the residence of the Holy Roman Emperor, the Kings of Germany and their court. Nuremberg Castle is particularly important in the history of the Empire as it was the meeting place for all Imperial Diets (formal assemblies).
Turner pictures the site from the northern Vestnertorgraben. The ramparts are seen in the foreground of the sketch, inscribed at bottom right with the word ‘Stone’. From left to right the Kaiserberg, Sinwell Tower and the Kaiserstallung can be seen, with the Tiergärtnertor depicted in the sky above. Turner has annotated the sketch with various notes: ‘Der Ziegen | Thurn’ | ‘und de Kisserstellung’ (i.e. the ‘Tiergärtnertor’ and ‘Kaiserstallung’) and ‘der Burg nordlich’ (‘the northerly castle’).
For more views of Nuremberg see Tate D30707–D30711, D30713, D30715–D30718, D30720–D30726, D30729–D30730; Turner Bequest CCCIV 40a–42a, 44, 45–46a, 47a–50a, 52–52a.
Recto:
Blank.

Alice Rylance-Watson
December 2015

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Nuremberg: The Kaiserstallung and Burg from the North (the Vestnertorgraben) (Continued in the Sky above) 1835 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, December 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-nuremberg-the-kaiserstallung-and-burg-from-the-north-the-r1187099, accessed 25 April 2024.