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 Prague: View of the Little Quarter and the Prospect down the Vltava 1835

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Prague: View of the Little Quarter and the Prospect down the Vltava’ 1835
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 78 Recto:
Prague: View of the Little Quarter and the Prospect down the Vltava 1835
D30779
Turner Bequest CCCIV 78
Pencil on cream laid paper, 118 x 190 mm
Watermark ‘[h]onig’
Inscried in pencil by Turner ‘RC’, ‘WC’ top right
Inscribed in red ink by Ruskin ‘78’ bottom right, reinscribed ‘78’ in black ink
Stamped in black ‘CCCIV–78’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This view of Prague was taken from the edge of Petrín Hill, on the opposite bank of the Vlatava to the Old Town (seen at right). The Little Quarter is built on the lower reaches of Petrín Hill, and features a number of baroque churches including the Church of Our Lady Victorious (at bottom left, topped with an onion dome) and the twin-towered Church of Saint Mary under the Chain. Charles Bridge, mounted with over thirty statues of saints, is at centre. Just visible at the end of it is the dome of St Francis’ Church.
Turner produced several views of Prague on the 1835 tour. For other drawings in this sketchbook 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, ‘Prague: View of the Little Quarter and the Prospect down the Vltava 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-prague-view-of-the-little-quarter-and-the-prospect-down-the-r1187154, accessed 25 April 2024.