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 Berlin: The Kreuzberg and City Centre from a Distance (in Three Instalments); Berlin: The Liberation Monument on the Kreuzberg 1835

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Berlin: The Kreuzberg and City Centre from a Distance (in Three Instalments); Berlin: The Liberation Monument on the Kreuzberg’ 1835
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 19 Recto
Berlin: The Kreuzberg and City Centre from a Distance (in Three Instalments); Berlin: The Liberation Monument on the Kreuzberg 1835
D31058
Turner Bequest CCCVII 20
Pencil on cream laid paper, 89 x 162 mm
Watermarked with a beehive surrounded by garlands and bees
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘Pal’ right centre; ‘Gross | Goerschen | 12 May | Gross | Berlin | 23 Ags | 1813 | Donnewitz 6 S’ left centre
Inscribed in red ink by Ruskin ‘20’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCCVII–20’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This is a prospect of Berlin, rendered in three instalments. The Marienkirche (labelled ‘Mar’ by Turner), Cathedral and Schloss (labelled ‘Pal’ for ‘palace’) can all be seen.
Schinkel’s Liberation Monument in Kreuzberg is also pictured. This memorial was erected in 1821 to mark Prussian lives lost during the Wars of Liberation (1813–15). Turner has made note of three of the monument’s decorations commemorating: the Battle of Großgörschen (2 May 1813) transcribed by the artist as ‘Gross | Goerschen | 12 May’; the Battle of Großbeeren (23 August 1813) rendered as ‘Gross | Berlin | 23 Ags | 1813’ and finally the Battle of Dennewitz (6 September 1813) transcribed as ‘Donnewitz 6 S’. See also Tate D31060; Turner Bequest CCCVII 21.
For other sketches of Berlin see Tate D21045–D31082; Turner Bequest CCCVII 13a–32.

Alice Rylance-Watson
May 2015

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Berlin: The Kreuzberg and City Centre from a Distance (in Three Instalments); Berlin: The Liberation Monument on the Kreuzberg 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-berlin-the-kreuzberg-and-city-centre-from-a-distance-in-r1186931, accessed 19 September 2024.