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

With the pages turned horizontally, folios 34 verso and 35 recto and verso (D32328–D32330) show Brunico (Bruneck), a Dolomites town roughly fifteen miles north-east of Bressanone (Brixen; see folio 31 recto; D32321) In the present drawing the view is south from the bridge over the River Rienza (Rienz).

The turret on the right is now part of a hotel on the Via Bastioni, while to the left are the Baroque gable and onion-domed tower of the church of Santo Spirito. In the distance south-east along the river are the twin towers of Santa Maria Assunta, now obscured by trees, and towards the top right is the tower of the Rainkirche; both are at the foot of the steep ascent to Castello Brunico (Schloss Bruneck) beyond, now a museum. Most of these features are seen again from a little to the east on folio 35 recto opposite (D32329).

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