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 Views of Castel Firmiano (Schloss Sigmundskron) from the South, with Bolzano (Bozen) in the Distance 1833

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Views of Castel Firmiano (Schloss Sigmundskron) from the South, with Bolzano (Bozen) in the Distance’ 1833
Folio 44 Recto:
Views of Castel Firmiano (Schloss Sigmundskron) from the South, with Bolzano (Bozen) in the Distance 1833
D31683
Turner Bequest CCCXII 44
Pencil on white laid paper, 203 x 109 mm
Inscribed by C.F. Bell in black ink ‘44’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCCXII – 44’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The subject is the dramatically situated Castel Firmiano (Schloss Sigmundskron, now a museum), above the River Adige (Etsch) south-west of Bolzano (Bozen). There are numerous drawings in the vicinity on adjacent pages and elsewhere in the sketchbook; for these and further discussion, see under folio 1 verso (D31598).
The page was used both ways. In the top half there are two variant views of the castle from the south, with the Santal Alps in the distance. Overlapping a little with the second and expanding from there to fill the rest of the page, a horizontal view shows the castle with the steep slope down to the Isarco (Eisack) Valley, with Bolzano in the distance upstream and the Dolomites to the right.

Matthew Imms
May 2019

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Views of Castel Firmiano (Schloss Sigmundskron) from the South, with Bolzano (Bozen) in the Distance 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/views-of-castel-firmiano-schloss-sigmundskron-from-the-south-with-bolzano-bozen-in-the-r1203881, accessed 05 April 2026.