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

Here Turner depicts Heidelberg Castle from a southeasterly perspective, showing the Gate Tower at left and the Broken Tower, blown up during the Nine Years’ War (1688–97), at right. As Turner shows in the foreground of this sketch, the tower was only partially destroyed, a chunk having toppled into the moat, remaining there to this day.

For more views of Heidelberg in this sketchbook see Tate D29815–D29865; Turner Bequest CCXCVIII 1a–26a. See also Tate D30132; Turner Bequest CCC 2 within the Salzburg and Danube sketchbook of 1833. For sketches of the city taken in 1841 see the Berne, Heidelberg and Rhine sketchbook (Tate D32957–D32962, D32966; Turner Bequest CCCXXVI 39a–42, 44). For sketches taken during the1844 tour of Heidelberg and the Neckar, see the Spires and Heidelberg sketchbook (Tate D29783, D29795, D29796, D29799, D29801–D29807; Turner Bequest CCXCVII 6a, 12a, 13, 14a, 15a–19); the On the Neckar sketchbook (Tate D30394, D30456; Turner Bequest CCII 12a, 43a); and the Heidelberg sketchbook (Tate D35223, D35224, D35228, D35229, D35231–D35233, D35235, D35237, D35238; Turner Bequest CCCLII 4a, 5, 8, 9, 11–13, 15, 17, 18). Loose colour studies, paintings and engravings of Heidelberg in the Tate collection include D36183, D36325; Turner Bequest CCCLXVI 325, CCCLXV 34, Tate N00518 and Tate impression T05190.