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 Hauptmarkt, Nuremberg, with the Schöner Brunnen Fountain, and St Sebaldus's Church, the Town Hall and the Burg Beyond; the Giechburg and Gügel, near Schesslitz 1840

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Hauptmarkt, Nuremberg, with the Schöner Brunnen Fountain, and St Sebaldus's Church, the Town Hall and the Burg Beyond; the Giechburg and Gügel, near Schesslitz’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 29 Recto:
The Hauptmarkt, Nuremberg, with the Schöner Brunnen Fountain, and St Sebaldus’s Church, the Town Hall and the Burg Beyond; the Giechburg and Gügel, near Schesslitz 1840
D31332
Turner Bequest CCCX 29
Pencil on cream wove paper, 126 x 198 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘M[?arket] Nubg’ towards bottom left, and ‘Giech’ centre right, descending vertically
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘29’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCCX – 29’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Made with the page turned horizontally, the main view is north to the Hauptmarkt square in Nuremberg, with the slim Gothic spire of the Schöner Brunnen fountain towards the right, as recognised by Cecilia Powell.1 Beyond is the apsidal Gothic east end of St Sebaldus’s Church, with the pinnacles of the Baroque old town hall opposite, and the profile of the Burg fortifications on the skyline; compare the more detailed drawings in the 1835 Prague, Nuremberg, Frankfurt and Rhine sketchbook (Tate D30730, D30732; Turner Bequest CCCIV 52a, 54).
Much of the city was destroyed in the Second World War, and the medieval buildings in the foreground, including the building with the stepped gable beyond the fountain, do not survive, while the church spires are now obscured from this direction. Turner made only a few drawings here this time (see also the verso, folios 30 recto–32 recto, and folio 45 recto; D31333–D31338, D31364) as compared with his extensive survey in the 1835 book (see Tate D30707–D30742; Turner Bequest CCCIV 40a–59).2
Separated by a pencil line to the right, at right angles and inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation), a rough ‘carriage sketch’ shows two hills, with ‘Giech’ scrawled above; Powell has identified the subject as ‘Giech and Gügel near Schesslitz’; the neighbouring hills south-east of the town were each originally surmounted by a castle. The ruined Giechburg has been partly restored, while a pilgrimage church is now the main feature of Burg Gügel. The scene lies between Bamberg and Coburg (see under folios 19 recto and 1 verso respectively; D31312, D31278).
For the subjects’ relation to Turner’s overall itinerary, see the sketchbook’s Introduction.

Matthew Imms
September 2018

1
See Powell 1995, p.243.
2
See also ibid., pp.70, 82 note 55.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Hauptmarkt, Nuremberg, with the Schöner Brunnen Fountain, and St Sebaldus’s Church, the Town Hall and the Burg Beyond; the Giechburg and Gügel, near Schesslitz 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-hauptmarkt-nuremberg-with-the-schoner-brunnen-fountain-r1196120, accessed 20 September 2024.