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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Hals and Burg Hals to the North above the River Ilz; the Entrance Gate to Burg Hals from the Market Place 1840

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 61 Verso:
Hals and Burg Hals to the North above the River Ilz; the Entrance Gate to Burg Hals from the Market Place 1840
D31397
Turner Bequest CCCX 61a
Pencil on cream wove paper, 198 x 126 mm
Partial watermark ‘atman
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘3’ centre, upside down, ‘1’ centre right, and ‘2’ bottom left
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Turner used this page both vertically and horizontally for two aspects of the same subject, as identified by Cecilia Powell.1 The more detailed view shows the view north to the ruins of Burg Hals, near Passau, climbing the spine of its rocky ridge (now wooded) within a tight meander of the River Ilz. Below in the foreground is the riverside village of Hals, with the spire of St George’s Church on the left. This view is numbered ‘1’, with what Powell notes as a ‘tiny continuation’ of the view up the river to the right of the castle as a thumbnail detail at the bottom left, labelled ‘2’.
With the page turned horizontally, drawing ‘3’ is a looser view of the castle beyond flanking houses, seen from the Marktplatz just north of the church with a figure or figures in the foreground. The full-page Hals view on folio 66 verso (D31407) is numbered ‘4’; for numerous other contemporary views of the village and castle ruins on adjacent pages of this sketchbook and elsewhere, see under folio 58 verso (D31391).

Matthew Imms
September 2018

1
See Powell 1995, p.244.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Hals and Burg Hals to the North above the River Ilz; the Entrance Gate to Burg Hals from the Market Place 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-hals-and-burg-hals-to-the-north-above-the-river-ilz-the-r1196185, accessed 28 March 2024.