Joseph Mallord William Turner

Ruined Castles among Mountains ?in the Tyrol Alps

1840

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In Tate Britain

Prints and Drawings Room

View by appointment

Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of: Rotterdam to Venice Sketchbook
Medium: Graphite on paper
Dimensions: Support: 89 × 149 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference: D32305
Turner Bequest CCCXX 23

Catalogue entry

The main drawing was made with the page turned horizontally, and shows what appear to be two ruined castles in a rocky setting. The lower, with its slender tower, may be the same as in the smaller sketch on folio 22 verso opposite (D32304). To the left, at right-angles, is what seems to be a third distinct castle.

A long sequence of sketches, mostly characterised as ‘Mountains’ by Finberg (with occasional identifications and transcriptions of the place names marked by the artist), lies between folios 7 recto and 76 recto (D32275–D32411).1 See the sketchbook’s Introduction for the likely overall route between Bregenz and Venice.2

Matthew Imms
September 2018

See Finberg 1909, II, pp.1030–2.

See also Cecilia Powell, Turner in Germany, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1995, pp.65, 81 note 9.

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