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 ... > Copenhagen to Dresden Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner English and German Phrases 1835

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘English and German Phrases’ 1835
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 1 Recto
English and German Phrases 1835
D31020
Turner Bequest CCCVII 1
Pencil on cream laid paper, 162 x 89 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner and another with English and German phrases [transcribed in full in the main catalogue entry]
Inscribed in red ink by Ruskin ‘1’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCCVII–1’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Here Turner has inscribed English phrases, which have been translated into German by another hand (see also Tate D31021–D31026; Turner Bequest CCCVII 1a–4). All the German translations except for the first three on this folio are written twice: first in standard German and second in old script known as deutsche Kurrent.
‘I want to go to Berlin
Ich will nach Berlin gehen
I wish to see
Ich wollte – sehen
How can I go
Wie kann ich nach – kommen
What can I get
Was kann ich bekommen
[deutsche Kurrent equivalent]
Give me
Geben sie mir
[deutsche Kurrent equivalent]
Take this
Nehmen sie dies
[deutsche Kurrent equivalent]’

Alice Rylance-Watson
May 2015

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘English and German Phrases 1835 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 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-english-and-german-phrases-r1186895, accessed 25 April 2024.