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

Cecilia Powell has identified this slight horizontal subject as ‘Regensburg with the cathedral and bridge tower’.1 The medieval Steinerne Brücke crosses the River Danube and the Brückturm with its clock stands at its southern end, with the twin west towers of the cathedral (then lacking their upper stages and slender spires) beyond.

In the juxtaposition shown here they would be obscured by the high roof of the Salzstadel building to the left of the bridge tower, and it is unclear how the foreground elements, which may show parts of the bridge, relate. Compare the contemporary watercolour studies (Tate D36150–D36151; Turner Bequest CCCLXIV 293, 294) and more coherent drawings on the versos of folios 42–45 (D31359, D31361, D31363, D31365). For numerous contemporary views of Regensburg in this sketchbook and elsewhere, see under folio 18 verso (D31311).2