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 ... > Prague, Nuremberg, Frankfurt and Rhine ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Frankfurt: The Bridge and Maininsel, Looking Downstream to the Cathedral (in Two Instalments) 1835

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Frankfurt: The Bridge and Maininsel, Looking Downstream to the Cathedral (in Two Instalments)’ 1835
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 33 Verso:
Frankfurt: The Bridge and Maininsel, Looking Downstream to the Cathedral (in Two Instalments) 1835
D30693
Turner Bequest CCCIV 33 a
Pencil on cream laid paper, 118 x 190 mm
Watermark with the Lion of the Seven Provinces
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Here Turner pictures the German city of Frankfurt from the banks of the Main, looking downstream towards the Cathedral and Alte Brücke (Old Bridge). A small river island known as the Maininsel lies directly beneath the bridge, situated closer to the Sachsenhausen side of the Main (pictured left). Though the Maininsel is not clearly visible in this sketch, the two old mills at either side of the bridge’s balustrade can be seen.
The view of the Old Town is continued in an instalment at top left. For more drawings of Frankfurt see Tate D30678–D30679, D30684–D30698, D30700–D30705; Turner Bequest CCCIV 26–26a, 29–36, 37–39a.

Alice Rylance-Watson
December 2015

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Frankfurt: The Bridge and Maininsel, Looking Downstream to the Cathedral (in Two Instalments) 1835 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, December 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-frankfurt-the-bridge-and-maininsel-looking-downstream-to-the-r1187069, accessed 20 April 2024.