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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Southern Germany, Austria and Venice ... > Venice up to Trento Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Maria-Theresien-Strasse, Innsbruck, with the Annasäule (Column of St Anne), the Spire of the Spitalskirche zum Heiligen Geist and the Stadtturm Beyond 1833

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Maria-Theresien-Strasse, Innsbruck, with the Annasäule (Column of St Anne), the Spire of the Spitalskirche zum Heiligen Geist and the Stadtturm Beyond’ 1833
Folio 28 Recto:
Maria-Theresien-Strasse, Innsbruck, with the Annasäule (Column of St Anne), the Spire of the Spitalskirche zum Heiligen Geist and the Stadtturm Beyond 1833
D31651
Turner Bequest CCCXII 28
Pencil on white laid paper, 109 x 203 mm
Inscribed by C.F. Bell in black ink ‘28’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCCXII – 28’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
As Finberg recognised,1 this horizontal view is north along Maria-Theresien-Strasse from near the corner of Meraner Strasse, with the Column of St Anne (Annasäule), the Baroque spire of the Hospital Church of the Holy Ghost Church (Spitalskirche) overlooking the Town Square beyond, and the taller Stadtturm in the distance on the right down Herzog-Friedrich-Strasse.
The elaborate façade on the right remains over a shop, and the one with tall oriel bays beyond it, but a large Modernist black has replaced some of those beyond. The ornamental feature in the right foreground has gone. Rusticated detail in left foreground seems to have gone, but beyond seems to hint at twin columned entrances supporting tall bays surviving on that side.
Compare William Callow’s more detailed 1846 drawing with the Annasäule in the foreground (Tate A00156). For the handful of Innsbruck views scattered through this sketchbook and others made on the outward leg of the tour, see under folio 17 recto (D31629). The slighter view on the verso (D31652) is unconfirmed as another.

Matthew Imms
May 2019

1
Finberg 1909, II, p.1006.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Maria-Theresien-Strasse, Innsbruck, with the Annasäule (Column of St Anne), the Spire of the Spitalskirche zum Heiligen Geist and the Stadtturm Beyond 1833’, catalogue entry, May 2019, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, March 2023, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/maria-theresien-strasse-innsbruck-with-the-annasaule-column-of-st-anne-the-spire-of-the-r1203849, accessed 26 June 2025.