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 Hills and Castles, ?from a Carriage; the Altenburg, Bamberg 1840

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Hills and Castles, ?from a Carriage; the Altenburg, Bamberg’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 47 Verso:
Hills and Castles, ?from a Carriage; the Altenburg, Bamberg 1840
D31369
Turner Bequest CCCX 47a
Pencil on cream wove paper, 126 x 198mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Heelenberg S[...]’ and ‘2’ centre right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
There are various sketches here, made with the page turned horizontally and both ways. Along the gutter and at the outer edge are broad prospects of hilly landscapes, both with what is likely a castle in the middle; the outer drawing is slightly disjointed, and may comprise two separate subjects. Cecilia Powell has plausibly suggested that these were ‘made from a carriage’1 as Turner travelled through Germany. At the centre left is what appears to be a ruined hilltop castle, with a spire below to the left.
To the right is a more considered sketch, apparently from the vicinity of houses with figures outside, looking up to a castle with a slim two-stage tower high on the distant skyline. Powell has identified this as the Altenburg castle, south-west of Bamberg. One view of the town centre is on folio 48 recto opposite (D31370), with the same inscription, apparently ‘Heelenberg’, perhaps indicating a misheard or defunct local place name.
Turner made drawings of the town from beside the Altenberg on folios 19 recto, 28 recto, 45 recto and 66 recto (D31312, D31330, D31364, D31406), and another study on folio 65 recto (D31404). For numerous other Bamberg views in this sketchbook, see under D31312.

Matthew Imms
September 2018

1
See Powell 1995, p.243.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Hills and Castles, ?from a Carriage; the Altenburg, Bamberg 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-hills-and-castles-from-a-carriage-the-altenburg-bamberg-r1196157, accessed 05 April 2026.