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 ... > Rotterdam to Venice Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Entrance to Burg Hohenbregenz, on the Gebhardsberg near Bregenz 1840

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Entrance to Burg Hohenbregenz, on the Gebhardsberg near Bregenz’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 5 Recto:
The Entrance to Burg Hohenbregenz, on the Gebhardsberg near Bregenz 1840
D32271
Turner Bequest CCCXX 5
Pencil on white wove paper, 89 x 149 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘5’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCCXX – 5’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
In noting ‘page 5a’ among Bregenz subjects (that is, the verso, D32272), Edward Yardley described ‘a close-up view of a church and spire, possibly St Gallus or the monastery’,1 which appears more applicable to the present drawing. In fact, with the page turned horizontally, the entrance to Burg Hohenbregenz is seen to the south-east, set high on the Gebhardsberg south of Bregenz; still recognisable albeit restored, the castle now houses a restaurant. Above rises the spire of the adjacent pilgrimage church, continued a little way onto the view over Lake Constance on folio 4 verso opposite (D32270). Finberg’s 1909 Inventory bracketed the two pages as a single subject,2 but they are independent.
See under folio 2 verso (D32266) for Bregenz views on adjacent pages and four related watercolours on blue paper.3 The drawings on folios 4 recto–6 verso (D32269–D32274) are all from Gebhardsberg viewpoints.

Matthew Imms
September 2018

1
Yardley 1983, p.55.
2
See Finberg 1909, II, p.1030; see also Yardley 1983, p.55, this time discussing ‘pages ‘4a and 5’.
3
See also Yardley 1983, pp.54–5, Powell 1995, pp.65, 81 note 8, 155, and Selborne 2008, pp.96, 98 note 2.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Entrance to Burg Hohenbregenz, on the Gebhardsberg near Bregenz 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-the-entrance-to-burg-hohenbregenz-on-the-gebhardsberg-near-r1196506, accessed 18 April 2024.