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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Northern Germany, the Elbe and Prague ... > Copenhagen to Dresden Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Berlin: The Neue Wache and Zeughaus from close to the Opera House, with the Statue of Blücher in the Foreground; Details of the Zeughaus and the Statues of Bülow and Scharnhorst Above; Berlin: The Domkirche and Marienkirche 1835

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Berlin: The Neue Wache and Zeughaus from close to the Opera House, with the Statue of Blücher in the Foreground; Details of the Zeughaus and the Statues of Bülow and Scharnhorst Above; Berlin: The Domkirche and Marienkirche’ 1835
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 26 Recto
Berlin: The Neue Wache and Zeughaus from close to the Opera House, with the Statue of Blücher in the Foreground; Details of the Zeughaus and the Statues of Bülow and Scharnhorst Above; Berlin: The Domkirche and Marienkirche 1835
D31072
Turner Bequest CCCVII 27
Pencil on cream laid paper, 89 x 162 mm
Watermarked with a beehive surrounded by garlands and bees
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘[...]’, ‘4 figures at | [...]’ left centre; ‘Doric | Pil’ top left; ‘[...]’ top right towards centre; ‘Helmets’ bottom centre towards left; ‘6’ (on bays of Zeughaus)
Inscribed in red ink by Ruskin ‘27’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCCVII–27’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The principal view shows Berlin’s Neue Wache (New Guardhouse) situated adjacent to the Zeughaus (Old Arsenal). The statue of General Blücher (1742–1819) can be seen in the foreground. Turner has rendered details of the Zeughaus and statues of two other Prussians who fought in the Napoleonic Wars: Generals Gerhard von Scharnhorst (1755–1813) and Friedrich von Bülow (1755–1816). Various inscriptions annotate the drawings: ‘4 figures at [...]’, ‘Doric Pil[asters]’ (by the detail of the Zeughaus entablature), ‘Helmets’ close to the statue of Blücher, and ‘6’ on the bays of the Zeughaus. At top right is a jotting of the Cathedral (Dom) and the Church of St Mary (Marienkirche).
For other sketches of Berlin see Tate D21045–D31082; Turner Bequest CCCVII 13a–32.

Alice Rylance-Watson
May 2015

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Berlin: The Neue Wache and Zeughaus from close to the Opera House, with the Statue of Blücher in the Foreground; Details of the Zeughaus and the Statues of Bülow and Scharnhorst Above; Berlin: The Domkirche and Marienkirche 1835 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 2015, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, August 2017, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-berlin-the-neue-wache-and-zeughaus-from-close-to-the-opera-r1186945, accessed 26 April 2024.