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

Finberg later annotated his 1909 Inventory entry (‘Castle at Botzen’): ‘Maretsch & Torre Druso’.1 His personal Turner albums include a photograph of this work, inscribed on the back: ‘Prby 1835, return from Venice | V. at Bolzano, from near Runkelstein, looking towards Trent. | C of Maretsch, on Telfer, on left, with the Calvary, Virgl [i.e. Virgolo] & M. Kollern (Monte Colle) beyond. | Torre Druso on right with C. Troienstein – with Sigmondskron [sic] (Firmiano) in m.d., the centre shows the valley of the Adige (Etsch) with Monte Roen in distance’.2

The view is largely as Finberg described it, south along the broad valley of the fast-flowing Torrente Talvera (Talferbach), with the slender Torre Druso (Treuenstein) on the right. However, rather than Castel Mareccio (Schloss Maretsch), the fortress on the left seems to be Castel Sant’Antonio (Schloss Klebenstein), similar but with a more compact and varied roofline. It stands due east of the Torre Druso, here shown lower down and nearer to the Ponte Sant’Antonio (Sankt-Anton-Brücke) than in reality; the banks are now lined with trees. The tower and castle appear to be shown from the other direction in a pencil sketch (D40178) on the back of Tate D36156 (Turner Bequest CCCLXIV 299), a related colour study of nearby Castel Roncolo (Schloss Runkelstein, as mentioned by Finberg).

Castel Mareccio stands about half a mile south on the same side of the river as Castel Sant’Antonio, and seems to be the subject of a similar study of the valley (Tate D36155; Turner Bequest CCCLXIV 298). Bolzano (Bozen), the capital of Alto Adige province (otherwise Südtirol or South Tyrol) on the fringes of the Dolomites in northern Italy, is not far beyond. A page including various small mountain sketches in the contemporary Venice and Botzen book (Tate D31922; Turner Bequest CCCXIII 67), possibly made in retrospect, includes a detail apparently correlating with the view of the Torre Druso here.

In his 1974 discussion of 1840 Venice subjects on grey paper, Andrew Wilton compared them to ‘views on the Rhine and at Botzen, on paper of the same type and size, [Tate D36149–D36158] Turner Bequest CCCLXIV–292 to 301)’;3 see also the technical notes below. As well as D36152 (Turner Bequest CCCLXIV 295, a view over central Bolzano), and others now assigned to the return leg of this tour, that sequence also includes the three Torrente Talvera views (this one, D36155 and D36156; CCCLXIV 297–299). Each has a pencil sketch on the verso, respectively D40188, D40177 and D40178, the first and third around Bolzano, and the second of Bregenz, Austria, from the earlier stages of this route.

In his survey of Turner’s colour studies of Bregenz, Edward Yardley linked the four Bolzano sheets, dating them to 1840 by association;4 a year later, Hardy George was still tentatively considering them in relation to Turner’s 1833 tour to Venice.5 Another similar sheet, Tate D32189 (Turner Bequest CCCXVII 10), is a less finished variant of D36152, under which Turner’s visit is discussed further.

As he returned from Venice in 1833, Turner had made numerous drawings of the mountains and fortresses in the area, including Schloss Sigmundskron (Castel Firmiano); see the Introduction to that year’s Venice up to Trento sketchbook (Tate; Turner Bequest CCCXII), and Tate D31692–D31695 (CCCXII 48a–50) for views of the castles along the Talvera.

As noted above, the verso is D40188.

Technical notes:

Pencil detail has been added over the colour washes.

By technical comparison with various other sheets from the present tour, Cecilia Powell concluded that the three ‘Bozen’ subjects, D36154–D36156 (Turner Bequest CCCLXIV 297–299), ‘must also be dated to 1840.’1 Although lacking watermarks, they are doubtless further examples of the many she noted on grey 1829 Bally, Ellen and Steart paper, used that year neatly torn as eighths or sixteenths of the overall sheet, with dimensions of around 190 x 280 or 140 x 190 mm, and variously worked with pencil, watercolour and gouache; see the technical notes in the overall Introduction for others.2 The contemporary view of central Bolzano noted above (D36152) actually features part of a Bally, Ellen and Steart 1829 mark.