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 ... > Hamburg and Copenhagen Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Group of People Seen in Hamburg; Copenhagen: The North-East Side of Kongens Nytorv from an Upper Storey of the Hôtel d'Angleterre, with the Equestrian Statue of Christian V in the Foreground; The Giethuset and King's Theatre (in Sky Above) 1835

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Group of People Seen in Hamburg; Copenhagen: The North-East Side of Kongens Nytorv from an Upper Storey of the Hôtel d'Angleterre, with the Equestrian Statue of Christian V in the Foreground; The Giethuset and King's Theatre (in Sky Above)’ 1835
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 23 Verso:
Group of People Seen in Hamburg; Copenhagen: The North-East Side of Kongens Nytorv from an Upper Storey of the Hôtel d'Angleterre, with the Equestrian Statue of Christian V in the Foreground; The Giethuset and King's Theatre (in Sky Above) 1835
D30866
Turner Bequest CCCV 23 a
Pencil on white laid writing paper, 92 x 155 mm
Watermark ‘Jordan’
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘6’, ‘3’, ‘6’ centre right towards top; ‘Blue’, ‘Red | [?dress]’, ‘Red’ top orientated inversely by group of figures
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The principal view is of Copenhagen, taken from window or balcony on the upper storey of the Hôtel d’Angleterre, a renowned hotel on Kongens Nytorv (‘The King’s New Square’). Turner is thought to have stayed here during his stay in the city.1 At the heart of Kongens Nytorv is the gilded equestrian statue of king Christian V. In the sky towards top right Turner has recorded the profile of the Gjethuset (Copenhagen’s artillery foundry) and the King’s Theatre, founded in 1748.2 The numbers ‘6’, ‘3’ and ‘6’ are inscribed on the Gjethuset to represent the bays of the building.
Orientated inversely to the prospect of Kongens Nytorv is a sketch of a group of figures recorded in Hamburg. Turner has annotated the figures with colour notes.
For other drawings of Copenhagen see Tate D30824–D30829, D30832–D30833, D30859, D30861, D30873, D30881, D30883, D30887; Turner Bequest CCCV 2–5, 6a–7, 20, 21, 27, 31, 32, 34.

Alice Rylance-Watson
April 2015

1
Powell 1995, p.49.
2
‘Historie’, Gjethuset, accessed 18 May 2015, http://www.gjethuset.dk/?side=11 and ‘The Royal Danish Theatre’, Det Kongelige Teatre, accessed 18 May 2015, http://kglteater.dk/about-us/teatrets-historie

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Group of People Seen in Hamburg; Copenhagen: The North-East Side of Kongens Nytorv from an Upper Storey of the Hôtel d'Angleterre, with the Equestrian Statue of Christian V in the Foreground; The Giethuset and King's Theatre (in Sky Above) 1835 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 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-group-of-people-seen-in-hamburg-copenhagen-the-north-east-r1187244, accessed 18 April 2024.