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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Northern Germany, the Elbe and Prague ... > Dresden, Teplitz and Prague Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Prague: View up the Vltava to the Charles Bridge 1835

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Prague: View up the Vltava to the Charles Bridge’ 1835
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 26 Recto:
Prague: View up the Vltava to the Charles Bridge 1835
D30346
Turner Bequest CCCI 26
Pencil on cream wove paper, 100 x 159 mm
Partial Watermark ‘af’
Inscribed in red ink by Ruskin ‘26’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCCI – 26’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Here Turner pictures the Vltava River flowing through the centre of Prague, capital of Bohemia. Connecting the Old Town at left and the adjacent Lesser or Little Quarter at right is the Charles Bridge, which was constructed in 1357 under the auspices of King and Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV. A gothic tower fortifies the Old Town side of the bridge, and close by is the domed Church of St Francis. This sketch is one part of a panoramic survey of the city rendered across three pages (see Tate D30347–D30348; Turner Bequest CCCI 26a–27).

Alice Rylance-Watson
September 2015

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Prague: View up the Vltava to the Charles Bridge 1835 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2015, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, August 2017, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-prague-view-up-the-vltava-to-the-charles-bridge-r1186730, accessed 26 April 2024.