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 ... > Trieste, Graz and Danube Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Hills on the River Danube near the Leopoldsberg; Burg Kreuzenstein; Burg Greifenstein 1840

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Hills on the River Danube near the Leopoldsberg; Burg Kreuzenstein; Burg Greifenstein’ 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 11 Verso:
Hills on the River Danube near the Leopoldsberg; Burg Kreuzenstein; Burg Greifenstein 1840
D30023
Turner Bequest CCXCIX 11a
Pencil on cream wove paper, 198 x 127 mm
Partial watermark ‘J. Wh’
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Gretenstin’ above centre, and ‘Gereelstn’ above right of centre
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Cecilia Powell has identified the three subjects here,1 drawn one below the other down the page. At the top is a profile of hills in the vicinity of the Leopoldsberg, on the west bank of the River Danube north of Vienna; for other views made on this journey and in 1833, see under folio 7 recto (D30014).
Next, apparently with two phonetic attempts at its name, is Burg Kreuzenstein, above Leobendorf beyond the north bank about ten miles north-west of Vienna; see also folio 12 recto opposite (D30024), and the 1833 Salzburg and Danube sketchbook (Tate D30289–D30292; Turner Bequest CCC 81a–83).
Lastly, a couple of miles further on, is Burg Greifenstein, on the south bank near Sankt Andrä-Wördern; see also folio 12 recto opposite (D30024) and folio 13 verso (D30027).
Although Turner’s route upriver was straightforward, his somewhat haphazard use of this book to record it was not. For the geographical sequence of identified views between Vienna and Passau (see under folios 40 recto and 31 recto; D30076, D30058), see this sketchbook’s Introduction.

Matthew Imms
September 2018

1
See Powell 1995, p.242.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Hills on the River Danube near the Leopoldsberg; Burg Kreuzenstein; Burg Greifenstein 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-hills-on-the-river-danube-near-the-leopoldsberg-burg-r1196873, accessed 27 April 2024.