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 Prague: The City and the Prospect down the Vltava from Petrín Hill 1835

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Prague: The City and the Prospect down the Vltava from Petrín Hill’ 1835
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 75 Recto:
Prague: The City and the Prospect down the Vltava from Petrín Hill 1835
D30773
Turner Bequest CCCIV 75
Pencil on cream laid paper, 118 x 190 mm
Watermark ‘zo’
Inscribed in red ink by Ruskin ‘75’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCCIV–75’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
From the heights on Petrín Hill Turner was afforded an expansive prospect of Prague, the capital of Bohemia. Meandering through the centre of the city is the Vltava River, over which the Charles Bridge (named after Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV) can be seen. The Hradcany district, which slopes up a hill towards Prague Castle, is visible at left. Though the Castle itself is out of view, the imperial Cathedral of St Vitus can be seen.
Turner produced several views of Prague on the 1835 tour. For other drawings in this sketchbook Tate D30759–30761, D30764–D30765, D30767, D30771–D30773, D30775–D30777, D30779–D30783, D30788–D30790, D30792–D30803, D30805, D30807–D30811, D30813–D30820; Turner Bequest CCCIV 68–69, 70a–71, 72, 74–75, 76–77, 78–80, 82a–84, 85–91, 92, 93–96, 97–102. See also the Dresden, Tepliz and Prague sketchbook (Tate D30344–D30361, D30364–D30366; Turner Bequest CCCI 25–33a, 36–37).

Alice Rylance-Watson
December 2015

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Prague: The City and the Prospect down the Vltava from Petrín Hill 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-prague-the-city-and-the-prospect-down-the-vltava-from-petrin-r1187148, accessed 24 April 2024.