Joseph Mallord William Turner

Prague: St Vitus’s Cathedral from the South; Three Sketches of a Tower

1835

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Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Prague, Nuremberg, Frankfurt and Rhine Sketchbook
Medium
Graphite on paper
Dimensions
Support: 190 × 118 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D30765
Turner Bequest CCCIV 71

Catalogue entry

This is a study of St Vitus Cathedral in Prague, rendered with the sketchbook turned upside down. St Vitus is located within the Prague Castle complex and was the traditional coronation church of Bohemian kings and Holy Roman Emperors. The gothic cathedral was constructed under the patronage of Charles IV, King and Holy Roman Emperor, on the site of a previous Romanesque chapel founded by Wenceslaus I (later Saint Wenceslaus).
Turner has sketched unidentified towers above and below St Vitus; these are also seen on the folio opposite (Tate D30764; Turner Bequest CCCIV 70a).

Alice Rylance-Watson
December 2015

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