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: Hradcany and Fortifications from the East (in Three Instalments) 1835

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Prague: Hradcany and Fortifications from the East (in Three Instalments)’ 1835
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 91 Recto:
Prague: Hradcany and Fortifications from the East (in Three Instalments) 1835
D30803
Turner Bequest CCCIV 91
Pencil on cream laid paper, 118 x 190 mm
Watermark ‘[jan honig] & | zonen’
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘20’, ‘12’, ‘13’, ‘20’, ‘3’, ‘3’, ‘4’, ‘4’, ‘4’, ‘3’, ‘6’, ‘3’, ‘1’, ‘3’ across the page, against bays of castle
Inscribed in red ink by Ruskin ‘91’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCCIV–91’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
This is an extended prospect of the Hradcany district in Prague, rendered in three instalments to make one wide view. Prague Castle, the former residence of the kings of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperors, and St Vitus Cathedral, the imperial place of worship, are both pictured, surrounded by extensive fortifications. Turner has inscribed a series of numbers across the drawing that stands for the successive bays of the castle.
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: Hradcany and Fortifications from the East (in Three 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-prague-hradcany-and-fortifications-from-the-east-in-three-r1187178, accessed 25 April 2024.