The miscellaneous drawings here were made with the vertical page turned both ways up. As identified by Cecilia Powell,
1 the upper view is across Vienna’s Michaelerplatz, south past the façade and tower of St Michael’s Church on the left down Reitschulgasse, with the domed Baroque winter riding school opposite and the former Burgtheater with its rounded pediment below to the right, later demolished to make way for the concave eastern end of the St Michael’s wing of the Hofburg Palace, mirroring the riding school.
Above and below are rapid sketches of what seems to be a concave arcaded interior.
The other way up at the bottom is a slight sketch of buildings on a hill, labelled ‘Altenburgh’,
2 and likely showing Altenberg, part of Sankt Andrä-Wördern, on the Danube just west of Burg Greifenstein (see under folio 11 verso;
D30023). Finberg later annotated his 1909
Inventory entry (‘Street scene; an interior; castle on hill, &c. – “Allnburgh” &c.’): ‘6a | 7a} ?Albensberg, nr. Ratisbon | Ritenberg. | Count Beust’s Chateau on Danube nr Vienna | Baed. Aust. p 269.’
3 The latter suggestion (from an unknown edition of Baedeker’s guidebook to Austria) seems correct, as Graf von Beust, at one stage the Austrian Chancellor, died at Schloss Altenberg in 1882.
4 See also folio 7 verso (
D30015).
Although Turner’s route upriver was straightforward, his somewhat haphazard use of this book to record it was not. For the geographical sequence of identified views between Vienna and Passau (see under folios 40 recto and 31 recto;
D30076,
D30058), see this sketchbook’s Introduction.
Matthew Imms
September 2018
