Joseph Mallord William Turner

John Ruskin supposed this1 and other urban views in this sketchbook2 showed Grenoble, at the foot of the French Alps, nowhere near Turner’s itinerary on the present tour, perhaps on account of the confluence of waterways which he may have thought were the Rivers Drac and Isère (see the Introduction to this sketchbook). By 1973 it was suggested as a Rhine view,3 and Andrew Wilton published the true identification the following year,4 and rightly compared the view to pencil studies in the contemporary Venice; Passau to Würzburg sketchbook (Tate D31384, D31386; Turner Bequest CCCX 55, 56); see also D31383, D31385 and D31387 (CCCX 54a, 55a, 56a).

Cecilia Powell has described Passau as ‘superbly situated at the confluence of three rivers’:

Here, the view is south-west across the mouth of the Ilz at the bottom left, where it joins the Danube between the Ilzstadt, with the spire of St Bartholomew’s Church, and the Niederhaus fortifications directly overlooking the confluence. The heights crowned by the Oberhaus fortress on the right tower over the Danube, while beyond the Altstadt peninsula at the heart of the city, the view to the middle distance is up the Inn.6 Powell has observed that here ‘Passau seems to be a tiny island city, floating in mist’.7 Wilton has suggested that the ‘pale washes over their delicate but precise skeleton of pencil-work constitute a tour de force in the economical yet concrete evocation of space and atmosphere.’8

Two less detailed contemporary colour studies and third in pencil on grey paper show closely variant views (Tate D28993, D29006, D33871; Turner Bequest CCXCII 46, 57, CCCXLI 174),9 while D33674–D33675 (CCCXL 9–10), at the back of the present sketchbook, presents a panoramic view over the city and confluence from west of the Oberhaus, beyond the crest on the right here. For other views of Passau from this tour, see the book’s Introduction.