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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > Venice, Austria and Southern Germany ... > Venice; Passau to Würzburg Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Donaustauf, near Regensburg, from the Back of the Walhalla; the Infrastructure of the Walhalla; Studies of Women's Costumes 1840

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Donaustauf, near Regensburg, from the Back of the Walhalla; the Infrastructure of the Walhalla; Studies of Women's Costumes’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 69 Recto:
Donaustauf, near Regensburg, from the Back of the Walhalla; the Infrastructure of the Walhalla; Studies of Women’s Costumes 1840
D31412
Turner Bequest CCCX 69
Pencil on cream wove paper, 126 x 198 mm
Partial watermark ‘atman’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Yell’ top right, and ‘G Bonnet’ bottom centre, both descending vertically, beside figures
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘69’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCCX – 69’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
As identified by Finberg and more specifically by Cecilia Powell,1 the main horizontal view is apparently continuous, showing the prospect from near the north end of the temple-like hilltop Walhalla, then nearing completion high above the Danube Valley, west to the spire of St Salvator’s Church and on to the hilltop castle ruins at Donaustauf, a few miles downstream of Regensburg. Such a view is precluded today by dense trees on the slopes down to the church. For numerous contemporary views in the vicinity in this sketchbook and elsewhere, see under folio 33 verso (D31341).2
As Powell has noted,3 the disjointed geometric forms towards the top left evoke the immense stone infrastructure climbing the hillside to the colonnaded entrance at the other end of the Walhalla.
At right-angles, inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, there are several typically swift and deft studies of costume, all showing women from the back, with associated colour notes. One carries a large basket, and another perhaps a child. See also folios 67 verso, 70 recto and verso and the insides of the front and back covers (D31409, D31414–D31415, D41400–D41401).

Matthew Imms
September 2018

1
See Finberg 1909, II, p.999, and Powell 1995, p.244.
2
See also Powell 1995, pp.70, 82 note 53.
3
Ibid., p.244.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Donaustauf, near Regensburg, from the Back of the Walhalla; the Infrastructure of the Walhalla; Studies of Women’s Costumes 1840 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2018, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2019, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-donaustauf-near-regensburg-from-the-back-of-the-walhalla-the-r1196200, accessed 23 April 2024.