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 ... > Prague, Nuremberg, Frankfurt and Rhine ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Prague: View up the Vltava to the Charles Bridge, Petrín Hill and Hradcany (Continued in the Sky) with Boats on the River 1835

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Prague: View up the Vltava to the Charles Bridge, Petrín Hill and Hradcany (Continued in the Sky) with Boats on the River’ 1835
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 97 Recto
Prague: View up the Vltava to the Charles Bridge, Petrín Hill and Hradcany (Continued in the Sky) with Boats on the River 1835
D30813
Turner Bequest CCCIV 97
Pencil on cream laid paper, 118 x 190 mm
Watermark ‘zo’
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘Red and W R[...]’ bottom right
Inscribed in red ink by Ruskin ‘97’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCCIV–97’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This is a view of Prague, capital of Bohemia. Turner depicts the city from the Old Town side of the Vltava River, looking towards the Hradcany district and beyond to Charles Bridge with Petrín Hill in the distance. Prague Castle, the former residence of the kings of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperors, and St Vitus Cathedral, the imperial place of worship, are seen surrounded by extensive fortifications on the Hradcany. Following the slope down to the left is the Little or Lesser Quarter, with the domed Church of St Nicholas, the spire of St Thomas’ and the tower of Our Lady Victorious Church.
In the foreground at right Turner has drawn what appear to be boats, inscribed ‘Red and W R[...]’.
Turner produced several views of Prague on the 1835 tour. For other drawings in this sketchbook Tate D30759–30761, D30764–D30765, D30767, D30771–D30773, D30775–D30777, D30779–D30783, D30788–D30790, D30792–D30803, D30805, D30807–D30811, D30813–D30820; Turner Bequest CCCIV 68–69, 70a–71, 72, 74–75, 76–77, 78–80, 82a–84, 85–91, 92, 93–96, 97–102. See also the Dresden, Tepliz and Prague sketchbook (Tate D30344–D30361, D30364–D30366; Turner Bequest CCCI 25–33a, 36–37).
Technical notes:
There is a blot of red watercolour wash or perhaps the pigment used to dye the fore-edges of the book at top right (in accordance with the foliation).

Alice Rylance-Watson
December 2015

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Prague: View up the Vltava to the Charles Bridge, Petrín Hill and Hradcany (Continued in the Sky) with Boats on the River 1835 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, December 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-prague-view-up-the-vltava-to-the-charles-bridge-petrin-hill-r1187188, accessed 04 April 2026.