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: Part of the Liberation Monument on the Kreuzberg and Scenery beyond It; Gateway and House; Figures 1835

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Berlin: Part of the Liberation Monument on the Kreuzberg and Scenery beyond It; Gateway and House; Figures’ 1835
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 20 Recto
Berlin: Part of the Liberation Monument on the Kreuzberg and Scenery beyond It; Gateway and House; Figures 1835
D31060
Turner Bequest CCCVII 21
Pencil on cream laid paper, 89 x 162 mm
Watermarked with a beehive surrounded by garlands and bees
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘Sur aube Katzbach | Bell All’ left centre
Inscribed in red ink by Ruskin ‘21’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCCVII–21’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the sketchbook turned upside down, here Turner has rendered a rough sketch of the Liberation Monument in Kreuzberg, Berlin (see Tate D31058; Turner Bequest CCCVII 20). The monument commemorates a series of battles fought by the Prussians against Napoleon’s armies. Turner’s inscription ‘Sur aube Katzbach | Bell All’ refers to the plaque commemorating the Battles of ‘Bar-sur-Aube’ (27 February, 1813), Katzbach (26 August, 1813) and La Belle Alliance (aka the Battle of Waterloo of 18 June, 1815).
The remaining sketches show a gateway and house in Berlin and figures. The dome from Turner’s sketch of the Neue Kirche pictured on the folio opposite (Tate D31059; Turner Bequest CCCVII 20a) is at rear.
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: Part of the Liberation Monument on the Kreuzberg and Scenery beyond It; Gateway and House; Figures 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-part-of-the-liberation-monument-on-the-kreuzberg-and-r1186933, accessed 20 September 2024.