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 Würzburg, up the River Main from the Steinberg 1840

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Würzburg, up the River Main from the Steinberg’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 74 Recto:
Würzburg, up the River Main from the Steinberg 1840
D30600
Turner Bequest CCCIII 73
Pencil on flecked pale blue laid paper, 104 x 170 mm
Partial watermark (countermark): indecipherable maker’s name
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘73’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCCIII – 73’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The drawings between here and folio 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, directly up the river1 is the Alte Mainbrücke, with the city’s towers and spires on the left and the Marienberg complex towering above on the right. The Stations of the Cross leading up the hill to the twin spires of the Käppele south of the fortress are indicated to its left by a diagonal row of dots. There is a view from further back on the verso (D30600).
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, ‘Würzburg, up the River Main 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-wurzburg-up-the-river-main-from-the-steinberg-r1196356, accessed 20 April 2024.