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 Three Sketches (?Prague) 1835

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Three Sketches (?Prague)’ 1835
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 68 Verso:
Three Sketches (?Prague) 1835
D30760
Turner Bequest CCCIV 68 a
Pencil on cream laid paper, 118 x 190 mm
Watermark with the Lion of the Seven Provinces | ‘h’ | ‘jh[&z]’
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
These sketches probably show aspects of Prague’s Old Town and its medieval fortifications. The tower depicted here may be one of the thirteen city gates constructed to defend its entrances, while the bridge seen in part of the adjacent sketch is likely the Charles Bridge crossing the Vltava River.
Turner produced several sketches of Prague on the 1835 tour; For other drawings in this sketchbook see Tate D30759–30761, D30764–D30765, D30767, D30771–D30773, D30775–D30777, D30779–D30783, D30788–D30790, D30792–D30803, D30805, D30807–D30811, D30813–D30820; Turner Bequest CCCIV 68–69, 70a–71, 72, 74–75, 76–77, 78–80, 82a–84, 85–91, 92, 93–96, 97–102. See also the Dresden, Tepliz and Prague sketchbook (Tate D30344–D30361, D30364–D30366; Turner Bequest CCCI 25–33a, 36–37).

Alice Rylance-Watson
December 2015

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Three Sketches (?Prague) 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-three-sketches-prague-r1187135, accessed 23 April 2024.