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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Southern Germany, Austria and Venice ... > Zirl and the Alps near Innsbruck; ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Zirl and the River Inn, with the Stubai Alps towards Innsbruck 1833

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Zirl and the River Inn, with the Stubai Alps towards Innsbruck’ 1833
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Zirl and the River Inn, with the Stubai Alps towards Innsbruck 1833
D33842
Turner Bequest CCCXLI 156
Chalk and pencil on grey wove paper, 145 x 190 mm
Inscribed in red ink ‘156’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCCXLI – 156’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This is one of twenty-eight sketches of mountain scenes (some including castles and other buildings) on the rectos and versos of sixteen pieces of grey paper torn carefully from a single sheet; they were likely all made in the vicinity of Innsbruck within a short period around 23 September 1833, when Turner was travelling back from Venice towards the end of his tour, as discussed in the Introduction to the present subsection.1
Here, the town seen from an elevated viewpoint is apparently Zirl, including the Baroque spire of its parish church (see D33840; CCCXLI 155), seen in the Inn Valley from near the ruins of Burg Fragenstein, the subject of D33796, D33843, D33845, D33848 and D33851 (CCCXLI 115, 157, 158, 159v, 161) or the nearby Kalvarienberg church; compare the view on D33849 (CCCXLI 160), with the church high on the left. The prospect is to the south-east, downstream towards Innsbruck, with the Stubai Alps on the far side of the river, picked out in white along with other details including the distant peaks.
1
See also Powell 1995, pp.44, 79 note 84.
Technical notes:
There is some brown staining.
Verso:
Blank; inscribed in pencil ‘233 | O’ top left, upside down relative to recto. As with the recto, there is some staining.

Matthew Imms
May 2019

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Zirl and the River Inn, with the Stubai Alps towards Innsbruck 1833 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2019, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2023, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-zirl-and-the-river-inn-with-the-stubai-alps-towards-r1204272, accessed 20 May 2024.