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 ... > Würzburg, Rhine and Ostend Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Würzburg from the North-West, with the bend of the River Main 1840

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Würzburg from the North-West, with the bend of the River Main’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 77 Recto:
Würzburg from the North-West, with the bend of the River Main 1840
D30606
Turner Bequest CCCIII 76
Pencil on flecked pale blue laid paper, 104 x 170 mm
Partial watermark (countermark): indecipherable maker’s name
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘76’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCCIII – 76’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The drawings between folios 74 recto and 79 recto (D30600–D30610; Turner Bequest CCCIII 73–78), all made with the pages turned horizontally, are distant views of Würzburg, looking south from the sweeping north-westerly bend of the River Main, where the Steinberg and sloping vineyards still provide similar vantage points.
Here, as Cecilia Powell has noted, the view is from the north-west towards the Marienberg fortress complex, with the sweep of the Main valley across the foreground. For the extensive sequence of Würzburg views in this sketchbook and others elsewhere, see under folio 72 verso (D30596; CCCIII 71).

Matthew Imms
September 2018

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Würzburg from the North-West, with the bend of the River Main 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-wurzburg-from-the-north-west-with-the-bend-of-the-river-main-r1196362, accessed 25 April 2024.