Joseph Mallord William Turner

The page was used vertically both ways for three views along the River Danube about half-way between Passau and Linz, as identified by Cecilia Powell.1 They are all in the vicinity of the ruins of Haichenbach (the Kerschbaumer Schlössl), high above the tight S-bend near Schlögen. In the sketch at the bottom the castle is seen to the south; see also folios 21 recto and verso (D30041–D30042).

Powell has noted that as the Danube flows to Linz from Passau, it ‘pursues its course by means of several spectacular bends’, giving Turner the chance to study the ruined castles as he sailed up this stretch ‘looking quickly now upstream, now downstream’,2 as shown in various sketches interspersed with other subjects between folios 17 recto and 26 verso (D30034–D30052).3 Although his 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.