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 The Pleichertor, Würzburg, with the Marienberg Beyond; Fortifications around the Pleichertor 1840

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Pleichertor, Würzburg, with the Marienberg Beyond; Fortifications around the Pleichertor’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 80 Recto:
The Pleichertor, Würzburg, with the Marienberg Beyond; Fortifications around the Pleichertor 1840
D30612
Turner Bequest CCCIII 79
Pencil on flecked pale blue laid paper, 104 x 170 mm
Partial watermark: Tree of Liberty
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘79’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCCIII – 79’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
As Cecilia Powell has noted,1 the two views here, made horizontally and inverted in relation to each other, show the city walls around the Pleichertor, on the east bank of the River Main north of central Würzburg. Only the tower remains among later buildings within the outline of this corner of the former defences bounded by the Kranenkai and the Röntgenring.
In the drawing at the outer edge, the tower is shown in relation to the skyline of the Marienberg fortress, across the river to the south-west. The viewpoint and orientation of the view at the gutter are difficult to establish owing to the many later developments.
The Pleichertor features in views along the river on the verso (D30613) and folio 81 recto (D30614; Turner Bequest CCCIII 80). 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

1
See Powell 1995, p.245.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Pleichertor, Würzburg, with the Marienberg Beyond; Fortifications around the Pleichertor 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-pleichertor-wurzburg-with-the-marienberg-beyond-r1196368, accessed 26 April 2024.