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 Regensburg Cathedral across the River Danube, with the Steinerne Brücke; a Distant View of Donaustauf and the Walhalla, near Regensburg, from the River 1840

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Regensburg Cathedral across the River Danube, with the Steinerne Brücke; a Distant View of Donaustauf and the Walhalla, near Regensburg, from the River’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 43 Verso:
Regensburg Cathedral across the River Danube, with the Steinerne Brücke; a Distant View of Donaustauf and the Walhalla, near Regensburg, from the River 1840
D31361
Turner Bequest CCCX 43a
Pencil on cream wove paper, 126 x 198 mm
Partial watermark ‘atman’
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner used this page horizontally, both ways up. As recognised by Cecilia Powell,1 across the middle, and continued above, is a panorama of the towers and spires of Regensburg across the River Danube, looking south-west to the cathedral (then lacking the upper stages and taller spires of its west towers), with the twin spires of the Niedermünster church to its east towards the left; above, turning west upstream, the Steinerne Brücke is effectively shown in elevation, with up to thirteen of its arches indicated (the first few being lightly indicated at the right of the cathedral view). Ian Warrell has shown that the overall prospect and other sketches from similar viewpoints on adjacent pages informed a watercolour of the scene, as discussed under folio 42 verso (D31359);2 for numerous other contemporary views of the city in this sketchbook and elsewhere, see under folio 18 verso (D31311).3
The other way up at the outer edge is a view north across the Danube Valley a few miles downstream, ranging from Donaustauf, with its ruined castle overlooking St Michael’s Church towards the left to the smaller pilgrimage church of St Salvator at the centre, overlooked in turn by outline of the classical Walhalla memorial on the hill to the right; again, the subject was identified by Powell.4 For various related views in this book and elsewhere, see under folio 33 verso (D31341).5

Matthew Imms
September 2018

1
See Powell 1995, p.243.
2
See Warrell 2015, pp.6, 8 note 15.
3
See also Powell 1995, pp.69, 81 note 45.
4
See ibid., p.243.
5
See also ibid., pp.70, 82 note 53.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Regensburg Cathedral across the River Danube, with the Steinerne Brücke; a Distant View of Donaustauf and the Walhalla, near Regensburg, from the River 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-regensburg-cathedral-across-the-river-danube-with-the-r1196149, accessed 21 September 2024.