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

Finberg later amended his 1909 Inventory entry (‘Views of Cologne, from river’), adding a question mark.1 The Turner scholar C.F. Bell marked another copy in the same way.2 They were right to query the subject, which continues across folio 36 recto opposite (D19465), as well as the less detailed double-page view on folios 36 verso–37 recto (D19466–D19467), as Cecilia Powell has since identified them as showing Düsseldorf.3 The city is shown ranged along the east bank of the River Rhine. This half of the view shows the cupola of the Josephskapelle towards the left, with the more distant cupola of the Kreutzherrenkirche’s tower to its left. Next, overlooking the river beside the Josephskapelle, is the spire of St Lambertus’s Church; there is no noticeable indication of the spire’s corkscrew effect resulting from the use of unseasoned timber when it was swiftly rebuilt after a fire in 1815.4

The next prominent building is the Schlossturm, which now houses the Schifffahrtmuseum. The tower, since extended by a storey, is the only remaining part of the medieval castle complex, redeveloped later in the nineteenth century only to be destroyed by fire. Just to its left but further off are the twin spires of St Andreas’s Church. The waterfront continues to the right on D19465 opposite, with the medieval harbour crane and the spire of St Maximilian’s Church. Despite extensive reconstruction and expansion since 1945, the immediate prospect remains recognisable.

The slight marks at the top right are clouds continued from a small separate study on the other page, probably showing a sunset. See also a page of similar studies, perhaps made on the same occasion, in the contemporary Holland sketchbook (Tate D19110; Turner Bequest CCXIV 137). For various views of Düsseldorf in the Holland book and elsewhere, see under D19112 (CCXIV 138); compare in particular those in the 1833 Rotterdam and Rhine sketchbook (Tate D32591–D32592; Turner Bequest CCCXXII 26a, 27).