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

With the page inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, there are two unrelated subjects here. At the top is a distant view of a castle with a keep and several towers on a mountain crag; the skyline is continued a little way to the left on folio 34 recto opposite (D31663). 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.

Below, the more detailed study is northward along the Via Città Nuova in Vipiteno (Sterzing), towards the Torre delle Dodici (Zwölferturm) gate-tower, with its clock and sundial. Arcades, oriel windows and battlemented rooflines remain characteristic of the street, although the tower’s spire has since been replaced by a stepped gable of similar proportions, rising to 46 metres (150 feet) above a lancet window, following a fire in 1867.1 The town, not far south of the Brenner Pass, is about half-way along Turner’s route between Bolzano (Bozen; see under folio 1 verso; D31598) and Innsbruck (see under folio 17 recto; D31629).