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

The page was used vertically both ways for three views of castles above the River Danube about half-way between Passau and Linz, as identified by Cecilia Powell.1 At the top is a prospect in the vicinity of Burg Marsbach; for clearer views, see the recto (D30041). The other way up below are views of the ruins of Haichenbach (the Kerschbaumer Schlössl), with supplementary details, high above part of the tight S-bend near Schlögen; see also the recto and folio 22 recto opposite (D30043).

Cecilia Powell has noted that as the Danube flows to Linz from Passau, it ‘pursues its course by means of several spectacular bends’, giving Turner the chance to study the ruined castles as he sailed up this stretch ‘looking quickly now upstream, now downstream’,2 as shown in various sketches interspersed with other subjects between folios 17 recto and 26 verso (D30034–D30052).3 Although his 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.