J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

The page was used vertically both ways up. Inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation and likely drawn first, there are two mountain views, lacking landmarks apart from a small building in the foreground of one. Over half of the pages in this book comprise relatively slight sketches from Turner’s homeward route north through the valleys of the Alps via Trento, Bolzano (Bozen) and Innsbruck. As set out in the Introduction, although his overall itinerary is clear from many identified subjects, they were are not drawn in a single sequence, making the rugged scenes between them difficult to place.

The top third is taken up with a view along Maximilianstrasse, Augsburg, with silhouette of Adriaen de Vries’s bronze figure of Hercules fighting the Hydra cursorily indicated on the Herkulesbrunnen fountain at the centre of the foreground, the Moritzkirche immediately to the south-west on the right, and the Baroque tower of SS. Ulrich and Afra in the distance to the south-south-east. Compare folio 64 recto (D31722), where the church and fountain are seen from a little further forward and to the left of this viewpoint.

The fountain is shown from the other direction on folios 65 recto and verso (D31724–D31725); for other Augsburg views, see under folio 30 recto (D31855). In the right foreground of the present sketch is an incongruous continuation of the spire of Bolzano Cathedral from the earlier sketch at right-angles on folio 51 recto opposite (D31697).