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 Bamberg from the North-East; Coburg from Veste Coburg; the West End of the Fortress 1840

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Bamberg from the North-East; Coburg from Veste Coburg; the West End of the Fortress’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 27 Verso:
Bamberg from the North-East; Coburg from Veste Coburg; the West End of the Fortress 1840
D31329
Turner Bequest CCCX 27a
Pencil on cream wove paper, 126 x 198 mm
Partial watermark ‘atman’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Coburg’ towards bottom right, upside down, and ‘St [?Jac]’ towards top right, upside down
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned horizontally, across the centre is a general view of Bamberg,1 apparently from the north-east with the four spires of the cathedral on the left, the two spires of the Michaelsberg abbey at the centre, and the distant tower of the fortified Altenburg. For numerous other Bamberg views in this sketchbook, see under folio 19 recto (D31312), where the Altenburg is prominent in the foreground.2 The viewpoint of the main view and the precise subject of the presumably related but rougher urban skyline above are unclear.
The other way up at the outer edge is a prospect of Coburg. At right-angles to it at the bottom left is a thumbnail sketch looking up to the curtain wall round the south-western side of the Veste Coburg fortress, with the onion dome of its west tower; the main view was likely from a similar viewpoint, looking south-west over the park (now heavily wooded in places) to the town, with the spire of St Moriz’s Church towards the left; for other views of Coburg, see under folio 1 verso (D31278).3

Matthew Imms
September 2018

1
See Powell 1995, p.243
2
See also Powell 1995, pp.71, 82 note 58.
3
See also Powell 1995, pp.72, 82 notes 63 and 64.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Bamberg from the North-East; Coburg from Veste Coburg; the West End of the Fortress 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-bamberg-from-the-north-east-coburg-from-veste-coburg-the-r1196117, accessed 19 September 2024.