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 ... > Würzburg, Rhine and Ostend Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The River Main north-west of Würzburg, from the Steinberg 1840

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The River Main north-west of Würzburg, from the Steinberg’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 75 Recto:
The River Main north-west of Würzburg, from the Steinberg 1840
D30602
Turner Bequest CCCIII 74
Pencil on flecked pale blue laid paper, 104 x 170 mm
Partial watermark (countermark): indecipherable maker’s name
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Wall’ below right of centre
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘74’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCCIII – 74’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The drawings between folios 74 recto and 79 recto (D30600–D30610; Turner Bequest CCCIII 73–78), all made with the pages turned horizontally, are distant views of Würzburg, looking south from the sweeping north-westerly bend of the River Main, where the Steinberg and sloping vineyards still provide similar vantage points.
Here, as Cecilia Powell has notes, the view is west down the winding river1 to the countryside north-west of the city, apparently only indicated by the western end of the Marienberg complex on the skyline at the far left. The viewpoint may be the same as for the view south to the fortress and the city opposite on folio 74 verso opposite (D30601; CCCIII 73a), with the two drawings forming a disjointed panorama. The small disk at the top right presumably indicates the setting sun; there is a corresponding crescent moon over the city on folio 73 verso (D30599; CCCIII 72a).
For the extensive sequence of Würzburg views in this sketchbook and others elsewhere, see under folio 72 verso (D30596; CCCIII 71).

Matthew Imms
September 2018

1
See Powell 1995, p.245.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The River Main north-west of Würzburg, from the Steinberg 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-river-main-north-west-of-wurzburg-from-the-steinberg-r1196358, accessed 20 September 2024.