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 ... > Rotterdam to Venice Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Bressanone (Brixen), with the Cathedral and the Torre Bianca 1840

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Bressanone (Brixen), with the Cathedral and the Torre Bianca’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 31 Recto:
Bressanone (Brixen), with the Cathedral and the Torre Bianca 1840
D32321
Turner Bequest CCCXX 31
Pencil on white wove paper, 89 x 149 mm
Partial watermark ‘J H’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Brixen’ bottom centre
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘31’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCCXX – 31’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The drawing was made with the page turned horizontally. The clearly labelled view is south to the twin Baroque towers of Bressanone’s (Brixen’s) cathedral, with the Gothic spire of the Torre Bianca (Weisser Turm) just to their north-west, and the Dolomites rising beyond. The town is roughly half way between Bolzano (Bozen) to the south-west, and Brunico (Bruneck), to the north-east; see respectively folios 29 verso and 34 verso–35 verso (D32318, D32328–D32330). The Franzensfeste fortress, seen on folios 24 verso–25 recto (D32308–D32309), is not far to its north.
A long sequence of sketches, mostly characterised as ‘Mountains’ by Finberg (with occasional identifications and transcriptions of the place names marked by the artist), lies between folios 7 recto and 76 recto (D32275–D32411).1 See the sketchbook’s Introduction for the likely overall route between Bregenz and Venice.2

Matthew Imms
September 2018

1
See Finberg 1909, II, pp.1030–2.
2
See also Cecilia Powell, Turner in Germany, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1995, pp.65, 81 note 9.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Bressanone (Brixen), with the Cathedral and the Torre Bianca 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-bressanone-brixen-with-the-cathedral-and-the-torre-bianca-r1196555, accessed 23 April 2024.