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 Niederhaus, Passau, above the River Ilz, with the Confluence and the Altstadt Beyond 1840

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Niederhaus, Passau, above the River Ilz, with the Confluence and the Altstadt Beyond’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 54 Recto:
The Niederhaus, Passau, above the River Ilz, with the Confluence and the Altstadt Beyond 1840
D31382
Turner Bequest CCCX 54
Pencil on cream wove paper, 126 x 198 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘54’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCCX – 54’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned horizontally, the most distinctive element of this rapid study is Passau’s Niederhaus fortress, as identified by Cecilia Powell. Its tower and keep are shown to the south to the right of the centre, with the beginnings of the walls snaking up the hillside to the Oberhaus on the right. The complex overlooks the mouth of the River Ilz in the foreground, where two or three small boats are moored. Beyond the tower’s bastion and the Ilzstadt houses on the left, buildings towards the eastern tip of the Altstadt peninsula overlook the Ilz’s confluence with the Danube.
For numerous contemporary views of Passau in this sketchbook and elsewhere, see under folio 48 verso (D31371).

Matthew Imms
September 2018

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Niederhaus, Passau, above the River Ilz, with the Confluence and the Altstadt Beyond 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-niederhaus-passau-above-the-river-ilz-with-the-r1196170, accessed 20 September 2024.