Joseph Mallord William Turner Views of Bamberg, with the Geyerswörth Palace, Altes Rathaus, Obere Pfarrkirche, Michaelsberg and Cathedral 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 26 Verso:
Views of Bamberg, with the Geyerswörth Palace, Altes Rathaus, Obere Pfarrkirche, Michaelsberg and Cathedral 1840
D31327
Turner Bequest CCCX 26a
Turner Bequest CCCX 26a
Pencil on cream wove paper, 198 x 126 mm
Partial watermark ‘J. Wha’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Back of 3 Crowns’ below centre
Partial watermark ‘J. Wha’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Back of 3 Crowns’ below centre
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Exhibition history
1995
Turner in Germany, Tate Gallery, London, May–September 1995, Städtische Kunsthalle Mannheim, September 1995–January 1996, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, January–March (65, as some of ‘Nine Sketches of Bamberg’, 1840, reproduced).
2007
Colour and Line: Turner’s Experiments, Tate Britain, London, April–November 2007 (no catalogue).
References
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.II, p.997, CCCX 26a, as ‘Churches and other buildings: probably at Coburg’.
1995
Cecilia Powell, Turner in Germany, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1995, pp.71, 82 note 58, 144 no.65, as some of ‘Nine Sketches of Bamberg’, 1840, reproduced, p.243, as ‘Bamberg: five sketches showing the Geyserswörth [sic], town hall, Obere Pfarrkirche and cathedral towers from different viewpoints (3) Inscr. Back of 3 Crowns’.
There are five bands of sketches down the vertical page, the upper three aligned with the sketchbook’s foliation, and the two below inverted. Cecilia Powell has identified the subjects,1 which show various aspects of central Bamberg, not far from where Turner was staying at the Drei Kronen hotel (Three Crowns); for numerous other views of the town in this sketchbook, see under folio 19 recto (D31312).2
At the top is the domed Geyerswörth palace at the north end of the island in the River Regnitz in the middle of the town, with the lantern of the Altes Rathaus set on its bridge beyond, and the twin spires of the Michaelsberg abbey in the distance to the west-north-west. The second view is from near the river a little further south, looking west to the Gothic Obere Pfarrkirche, with the enclosed platform around the top of its tower, and the dome of the Geyerswörth on the right. The third drawing, left of centre, is a more generic street view at the ‘Back of [the] 3 Crowns’, as Turner notes.
Of the two drawings the other way up, the upper again shows the Altes Rathaus across the Obere Brücke on the right with the Geyerswörth now on the left and the Obere Pfarrkirche beyond to the south-west. Second, towards the centre of the page, is a less detailed variant, this time with the spires of the Cathedral in the gap, towards the west. Trees along the river now obscure some sightlines.
Matthew Imms
September 2018
How to cite
Matthew Imms, ‘Views of Bamberg, with the Geyerswörth Palace, Altes Rathaus, Obere Pfarrkirche, Michaelsberg and Cathedral 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