J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1836-47 Modern painter > Venice, Austria and Southern Germany ... > Venice; Passau to Würzburg Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche, Coburg, with Women beside the River Itz, and Schloss Ernsthöhe (later Hohenfels) in the Distance 1840

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche, Coburg, with Women beside the River Itz, and Schloss Ernsthöhe (later Hohenfels) in the Distance’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 25 Recto:
The Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche, Coburg, with Women beside the River Itz, and Schloss Ernsthöhe (later Hohenfels) in the Distance 1840
D31324
Turner Bequest CCCX 25
Pencil on cream wove paper, 126 x 198 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘25’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCCX – 25’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The drawing was made with the page turned horizontally. Finberg noted the River Itz here,1 but Cecilia Powell has fully identified the subject,2 with the Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche, north of central Coburg, on the right, and the regular profile of Schloss Ernsthöhe (later Hohenfels) on the skyline to the west-north-west. The church stands within a bend of the Itz, and the women on the left seem to be standing beside the river, but later trees, houses and other buildings in the immediate vicinity of the church and to the west now preclude a clear view. A third woman on the right appears to be carrying a baby or young child.
For the numerous Coburg views in this sketchbook, see under folio 1 verso (D31278).3

Matthew Imms
September 2018

1
See Finberg 1909, II, p.997.
2
See Powell 1995, p.243; see also pp.72, 82 note 64.
3
See also Powell 1995, pp.72, 82 notes 63 and 64.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Heilig-Kreuz-Kirche, Coburg, with Women beside the River Itz, and Schloss Ernsthöhe (later Hohenfels) in the Distance 1840 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2018, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, December 2019, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-heilig-kreuz-kirche-coburg-with-women-beside-the-river-r1196112, accessed 25 April 2024.