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 Käppele, St Burkard's Church and Marienberg from the Oberer Mainkai, Würzburg 1840

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Käppele, St Burkard's Church and Marienberg from the Oberer Mainkai, Würzburg’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 89 Recto:
The Käppele, St Burkard’s Church and Marienberg from the Oberer Mainkai, Würzburg 1840
D30630
Turner Bequest CCCIII 88
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 ‘88’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCCIII – 88’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned horizontally, the view is south-west over the River Main from Würzburg’s Mainkai a little south of the Alte Mainbrücke. Dominating the skyline opposite, as in many other views of the city, is the Marienberg fortress. To the left of centre below are the twin spires of St Burkard’s Church, and on the hillside beyond stands the Baroque Käppele.1
The view remains much the same apart from numerous trees on the Marienberg’s ramparts and along the waterfront. The tops of its towers are briefly continued upwards onto folio 88 verso opposite (D30629; Turner Bequest CCCIII 87a), where there is a similar view, albeit focusing on boats and buildings on the near bank.
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.244.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Käppele, St Burkard’s Church and Marienberg from the Oberer Mainkai, Würzburg 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-kappele-st-burkards-church-and-marienberg-from-the-r1196386, accessed 19 April 2024.