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, beside the River Main, with the Marienkapelle, Rathaus and Marienberg Beyond 1840

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Pleichertor, Würzburg, beside the River Main, with the Marienkapelle, Rathaus and Marienberg Beyond’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 81 Recto:
The Pleichertor, Würzburg, beside the River Main, with the Marienkapelle, Rathaus and Marienberg Beyond 1840
D30614
Turner Bequest CCCIII 80
Pencil on flecked pale blue laid paper, 104 x 170 mm
Partial watermark: Tree of Liberty
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘[...] of St [...]’ above centre
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘80’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCCIII – 80’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned horizontally, the view is south up the River Main along the Kranenkai towards central Würzburg, with boats and figures in the foreground. As Cecilia Powell has noted, the tall, plain Pleichertor is shown as part of the city walls, which with a turret and what appears to be high relief carving in the foreground.1 Of these features, only the tower itself survives beyond the Congress Centrum south of the Friedensbrücke. Beyond it are the Baroque spire of the Marienkapelle (since rebuilt in Gothic Revival style) and the tower and slim spire of the Rathaus.
Beyond the Alte Mainbrücke, the Marienberg fortress rises at the right-hand edge; there is a reprise and continuation at the top right. The prominent complex features in numerous adjacent drawings. There is a similar view from nearby on folio 80 verso opposite (D30613; Turner Bequest CCCIII 79a). See also two views of the defences around the Pliechertor on the recto of that leaf (D30612).
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, beside the River Main, with the Marienkapelle, Rathaus and Marienberg 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-pleichertor-wurzburg-beside-the-river-main-with-the-r1196370, accessed 19 September 2024.