Joseph Mallord William Turner

The medieval city of Regensburg in southern Germany is shown to the south across the River Danube, looking along the long and busy Steinerne Brücke, as Cecilia Powell recognised, describing the scene as ‘from the northern end of the bridge over the Danube in the very early morning when the sun has caught the tops of the buildings but not yet illuminated anything below roof level’:

The vehicle in the foreground appears to be ox-drawn. Maurice Davies used the composition as an example in his study of Turner’s use of perspective, as a variation on the traditional vanishing point: ‘The perspective centre can be placed to one side of the picture, implying the artist was not at the centre of the picture when it was produced’.2 He also observed: ‘Sometimes Turner used central perspective to focus the composition in a single direction, but on other occasions he provided other “routes” for the eye to follow’, as here.3

Turner made numerous pencil drawings around Regensburg in the contemporary Venice, Passau to Würzburg book; see under Tate D31311 (Turner Bequest CCCX 18a). Compare in particular views over the river on D31351, D31359, D31361, D31363, D31365 (CCCX 38a, 42a, 43a, 44a, 45a).

As discussed in the technical notes, the present study is one of seven of Regensburg and the nearby Walhalla at Donaustauf (see also Tate D32185, D34081, D34084–D34085, D34093, D36153; Turner Bequest CCCXVII 6, CCCXLI 360, 363, 364, 371, CCCLXIV 296) which were initially eighths of a single sheet; D36151 (CCCLXIV 294) is a closely related view on similar paper, from east of the bridge, tinted to suggest an evening effect. Powell has described their ‘sombre colours, sometimes articulated by dark penwork. The gravity ... exactly reflects the prevailing mood of Regensburg itself’,4 albeit Turner subsequently introduced a typically radiant effect to a watercolour on white paper from a nearby viewpoint, identified by Ian Warrell as ‘Regensburg from the Danube, with the Cathedral and Stone Bridge, at Sunset’5 (traditionally ‘Lyons’; Victoria and Albert Museum, London);6 see the Introduction to this subsection for other Regensburg watercolours.