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

Finberg later annotated his 1909 Inventory entry (‘Marketsch [sic] Castle and Tower of Botzen’): ‘Maretsch & Torre Druso’.1 Finberg’s personal Turner albums include a photograph of this work, inscribed on the back: ‘Prby 1835, return from Venice’ | ‘C Maretsch on left, with Virgl [i.e. Virgolo] & Monte Colle (Kollern) beyond, looking twds Trent. Torre Druso on right.’2

The view is largely as Finberg described it, south along the broad valley of the fast-flowing Torrente Talvera (Talferbach), with Castel Mareccio (Schloss Maretsch) on the left; the banks are now lined with trees. Bolzano (Bozen), the capital of Alto Adige province (otherwise Südtirol or South Tyrol), on the fringes of the Dolomites in northern Italy, is not far beyond, with the spire of its cathedral towards the left. Figures look over the river in the foreground, evoked by a few deft strokes of the same dark red and blue used in the landscape.

Despite Finberg’s unpublished suggestion, the distant tower on the right is probably not intended as the Torre Druso (Treuenstein), which is roughly half a mile north of the castle; it appears in the right foreground of a similar view which seems to show Castel Sant’Antonio (Schloss Klebenstein), a similar distance upstream on the same bank (Tate D36154; Turner Bequest CCCLXIV 297). Another related colour study shows nearby Castel Roncolo (Schloss Runkelstein: D36156; CCCLXIV 299).

In his 1974 discussion of 1840 Venice subjects on grey paper, Andrew Wilton compared them to ‘views on the Rhine and at Botzen, on paper of the same type and size, [Tate D36149–D36158] Turner Bequest CCCLXIV–292 to 301)’;3 see also the technical notes below. As well as D36152 (Turner Bequest CCCLXIV 295, a view over central Bolzano and the cathedral), and others now assigned to the return leg of this tour, that sequence also includes the three Torrente Talvera views (D36154, this one and D36156; CCCLXIV 297–299). Each has a pencil sketch on the verso, respectively D40188, D40177 and D40178, the first and third around Bolzano, and D40177 of Bregenz, Austria, from the earlier stages of this route. In his survey of Turner’s colour studies of Bregenz, Edward Yardley linked the four Bolzano sheets, dating them to 1840 by association;4 a year later, Hardy George was still tentatively considering them in relation to Turner’s 1833 tour to Venice.5 Another similar sheet, Tate D32189 (Turner Bequest CCCXVII 10), is a less finished variant of D36152, under which Turner’s visit is discussed further.

As he returned from Venice in 1833, Turner had made numerous drawings of the mountains and fortresses in the area, including Schloss Sigmundskron (Castel Firmiano); see the Introduction to that year’s Venice up to Trento sketchbook (Tate; Turner Bequest CCCXII), and Tate D31692–D31695 (CCCXII 48a–50) for views of the castles along the Talvera.

As noted above, the verso is D40177.

Technical notes:

There is loose pencil work over the colour at the bottom left.

By technical comparison with various other sheets from the present tour, Cecilia Powell concluded that the three ‘Bozen’ subjects, D36154–D36156 (Turner Bequest CCCLXIV 297–299), ‘must also be dated to 1840.’1 Although lacking watermarks, they are doubtless further examples of the many she noted as on grey 1829 Bally, Ellen and Steart paper, used that year neatly torn as eighths or sixteenths of the overall sheet, with dimensions of around 190 x 280 or 140 x 190 mm, and variously worked with pencil, watercolour and gouache; see the technical notes in the overall Introduction for others.2 The contemporary view of central Bolzano noted above (D36152) actually features part of a Bally, Ellen and Steart 1829 mark.