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 ... > The Route to Venice: The Rivers Mosel ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Schloss Landeck above the River Inn, from the South 1840

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Schloss Landeck above the River Inn, from the South’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Schloss Landeck above the River Inn, from the South 1840
D36085
Turner Bequest CCCLXIV 239
Pencil and watercolour on white wove paper, 246 x 304 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom right
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘1581’ bottom right
Inscribed in red ink ‘239’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCCLXIV – 239’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner made four partly finished watercolours of Landeck, an Austrian town among the Tyrol Alps at the confluence of the Rivers Sanna and Inn (Tate D36079, D36085, D36168, D36173; Turner Bequest CCCLXIV 233, 239, 310, 315). They are datable to 1840 by association with swift pencil sketches in the contemporary Rotterdam to Venice sketchbook (Tate D32294–D32295, D32322; Turner Bequest CCCXX 15a, 17, 31a). The town and its impressively situated castle lie about half way between Bregenz and Bolzano (Bozen), both of which are subjects elsewhere in this subsection, on the meandering south-eastern outward route towards Venice.
All four watercolours are loosely tinted over detailed pencil work, indicating that they were at least begun on the spot, independently of the small Rotterdam to Venice sketches. Here and in D36168, the view is downstream to the north, with the town out of sight in the valley beyond. In the other two, the view is over the town towards the castle, up the Inn to the south from near the confluence.
Until recent years, only D36168 had been recognised as a Landeck view; the subjects of the four sheets were first linked by Ian Warrell in 2002,1 when the present work was displayed at Tate Britain.
1
As noted in Tate catalogue files.
Technical notes:
The violet used in the distance towards the left has been partly washed out.
Verso:
Laid down on a trimmed sheet of modern white wove paper.

Matthew Imms
September 2018

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Schloss Landeck above the River Inn, from the South 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-schloss-landeck-above-the-river-inn-from-the-south-r1196430, accessed 17 June 2025.