Joseph Mallord William Turner

The Neutor Gateway of the Marienberg, Würzburg, with Churches including the Neumünster and Cathedral in the City Beyond

1840

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Not on display

Artist
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Part of
Würzburg, Rhine and Ostend Sketchbook
Medium
Graphite on paper
Dimensions
Support: 104 × 170 mm
Collection
Tate
Acquisition
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Reference
D30617
Turner Bequest CCCIII 81 a

Catalogue entry

With the page turned horizontally, the main view is from the slopes north of the Marienberg complex, now a wooded park. Below the main fortress are bastions flanking the heavily articulated Baroque Neutor gateway, reached by a sloping bridge on the hillside. There are slight indications of figures in the foreground, labelled as ‘Washer Women’, perhaps spreading laundry out to dry.
In the distance to the left, east across the River Main in Würzburg itself, are the Baroque dome and towers of the Stift Haug church and the Baroque spire of the Marienkapelle (since rebuilt in Gothic Revival style). Above, as Cecilia Powell has noted,1 are the dome of the Neumünster and the four spires of the cathedral to its east. These are all seen juxtaposed more clearly in the panoramic view from the Marienberg on folio 83 recto opposite (D30618; Turner Bequest CCCIII 82).
For the extensive sequence of Würzburg views in this sketchbook and others elsewhere, see under folio 72 verso (D30596; CCCIII 71).

Matthew Imms
September 2018

1
See Powell 1995, p.245.

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