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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Southern Germany, Austria and Venice ... > Venice up to Trento Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Castel Firmiano (Schloss Sigmundskron) from the South, with Bolzano (Bozen) in the Distance; Studies of the Castle 1833

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Castel Firmiano (Schloss Sigmundskron) from the South, with Bolzano (Bozen) in the Distance; Studies of the Castle’ 1833
Folio 45 Recto:
Castel Firmiano (Schloss Sigmundskron) from the South, with Bolzano (Bozen) in the Distance; Studies of the Castle 1833
D31685
Turner Bequest CCCXII 45
Pencil on white laid paper, 109 x 203 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘snow’ top right, over peaks, and ‘River’ towards bottom left, ascending vertically
Inscribed by C.F. Bell in black ink ‘45’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCCXII – 45’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Finberg later annotated his 1909 Inventory entry (‘Castle on mountain, with town below, beside lake’): ‘Distant v. of Sigmundskron from near S. Paolo, with Bolzano in distance, with Torre Druso | Rafenstein Castle &c.; also 3 difft. sketches of Sigmundskron’.1 The Turner scholar C.F. Bell marked another copy, crossing out ‘beside lake’ and adding: ‘Adige Valley and Siegmundskron’.2 The subject is indeed the dramatically situated Castel Firmiano (Schloss Sigmundskron, now a museum), above the River Adige (Etsch) south-west of Bolzano (Bozen). There are numerous drawings in the vicinity on adjacent pages and elsewhere in the sketchbook; for these and further discussion, see under folio 1 verso (D31598).
There are three sketches. The main horizontal view shows the castle from the south, looking up the Isarco (Eisack) Valley towards Bolzano (Bozen) on the right, with castles up the Torrente Talvera (Talfer) Valley to the west of the city, as suggested in Finberg’s notes; there are drawings up and down the Talvera itself between folios 47 verso and 50 recto (D31690–D31695). Compare the present view with another on folios 36 verso–37 recto (D31668–D31669).
Below to the right, loosely framed by pencil lines, is a slighter study of the castle from the north-east; compare the verso (D31686). At right-angles at the bottom left, inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, is a view south over the Adige up to the castle, with a continuation below (necessitated by the proximity of the main horizontal view) showing the gatehouse and former bridge in the valley to the right, as seen in other views such as the main sketch on folio 23 recto (D31641).

Matthew Imms
May 2019

1
Undated MS note by Finberg (died 1939) in interleaved copy of Finberg 1909, Prints and Drawings Room, Tate Britain, II, opposite p.1006; see also Finberg 1930, p.170.
2
Undated MS note by Bell (died 1966) in copy of Finberg 1909, Prints and Drawings Room, Tate Britain, II, p.1006.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Castel Firmiano (Schloss Sigmundskron) from the South, with Bolzano (Bozen) in the Distance; Studies of the Castle 1833’, catalogue entry, May 2019, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, March 2023, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/castel-firmiano-schloss-sigmundskron-from-the-south-with-bolzano-bozen-in-the-distance-r1203883, accessed 05 June 2025.