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 Augsburg, ?with the Göggingertor above the Moat, and the Tower of the Catholic Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche Beyond 1833

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Augsburg, ?with the Göggingertor above the Moat, and the Tower of the Catholic Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche Beyond’ 1833
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Augsburg, ?with the Göggingertor above the Moat, and the Tower of the Catholic Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche Beyond 1833
D33832
Turner Bequest CCCXLI 147
Pencil on grey wove paper, 141 x 187 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram below centre
Stamped in black ‘CCCXLI – 147’ bottom right
Inscribed in red ink ‘147’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This sheet and three others (D33881, D33853–D33854; Turner Bequest CCCXLI 129, 162, 163) show the outskirts of Augsburg in Bavaria, where Turner also used the contemporary Venice up to Trento and Rotterdam and Rhine sketchbooks (see respectively under Tate D31655 and D32543; Turner Bequest CCCXII 30, CCCXXII 2a). Although he had also passed through on the outward leg, it is perhaps most likely that the four separate views followed on from the mountain subjects near Innsbruck on similar grey paper included in the present grouping, as discussed in its Introduction. As set out there, the neatly torn edges of the Augsburg sketches match up to form a grid.
The precise identification of the present prospect is somewhat uncertain owing to many changes in the vicinity. The subject is likely the Göggingertor gate tower which formerly stood above the moat on the west side of the city, on the site of the current Königsplatz, with the tall tower of the Catholic Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche beyond to its north-west. The two towers appear to be shown from the opposite direction on D33854, and the Göggingertor is shown unmistakeably in the other two Augsburg views here, of which D33881 was drawn from the west end of the same bridge, assuming the present identification is correct. The other possibility is the similar Rotes Tor, which survives overlooking a bridge and bastion at the south-eastern corner of the city walls, in which case the tower would be that of SS. Ulrich and Afra.
The onion-domed towers of the Catholic Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche and the neighbouring Evangelical church of the same dedication are shown from their east ends along a street in the Heidelberg up to Salzburg sketchbook (Tate D29930; Turner Bequest CCXCVIII 59), one of a handful of sketches of the city from the outward leg of this tour.
Technical notes:
There is a tear of about 20 mm at the bottom centre. A minute hole below the centre may be a production fault.
Verso:
Blank, save for inscriptions; inscribed in pencil ‘233 | O’ top left, upside down.

Matthew Imms
May 2019

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Augsburg, ?with the Göggingertor above the Moat, and the Tower of the Catholic Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche Beyond 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-augsburg-with-the-goggingertor-above-the-moat-and-the-tower-r1204295, accessed 20 May 2024.