Joseph Mallord William Turner Burg Reschenstein, on the River Ilz near Passau 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Burg Reschenstein, on the River Ilz near Passau 1840
D33666
Turner Bequest CCCXL 1
Turner Bequest CCCXL 1
Pencil and watercolour on white wove paper, 211 x 277 mm
Watermark ‘R Turner’
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom left
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘[...]’ (now faint)
Stamped in black ‘CCCXL – 1’ bottom right
Watermark ‘R Turner’
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom left
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘[...]’ (now faint)
Stamped in black ‘CCCXL – 1’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Exhibition history
1904
National Gallery, London, various dates to at least 1904 (685, as ‘Swiss Scene’).
1963
J.M.W. Turner, Bridgestone Gallery, Tokyo, September–October 1963, Fine Arts Museum, Osaka, November 1964 (38, as ‘Mountain scene’).
1964
Turner 1775–1851: Watercolours from the British Museum, London, Presented in Association with the British Council, City Hall Art Gallery, Hong Kong, January 1964 (38, as ‘Mountain scene’).
1995
Turner in Germany, Tate Gallery, London, May–September 1995, Städtische Kunsthalle Mannheim, September 1995–January 1996, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, January–March 1996 (93, as ‘Burg Reschenstein on the Ilz’, 1840, reproduced in colour).
2008
Colour and Line: Turner’s Experiments [third hang], Tate Britain, London, October 2008–December 2009 (no catalogue, as ‘Burg Reschenstein on the Ilz’).
References
1904
E.T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn eds., Library Edition: The Works of John Ruskin: Volume XIII: Turner: The Harbours of England; Catalogues and Notes, London 1904, p.639 no.685, as ‘Swiss Scene’.
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.II, p.1064, CCCXL 1, as ‘Swiss scene. Exhibited Drawings No.685, N.G.’.
1963
Basil Gray, Edward Croft-Murray and Martin Butlin, J.M.W. Turner, exhibition catalogue, Bridgestone Gallery, Tokyo 1963, p.[29] no.38, as ‘Mountain scene’.
1964
Basil Gray, Edward Croft-Murray and Martin Butlin, Turner 1775–1851: An Exhibition of Watercolours from the British Museum London, Presented in Association with the British Council, exhibition catalogue, City Hall Art Gallery, Hong Kong 1964, p.18 no.38, as ‘Mountain scene ... Possibly a view near Grenoble’.
1995
Cecilia Powell, Turner in Germany, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1995, p.164 no.93, as ‘Burg Reschenstein on the Ilz’, 1840, reproduced in colour, p.244.
1997
Eric Shanes, Turner’s Watercolour Explorations 1810–1842, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1997, p.97, Appendix I, under ‘Germany’.
Long identified as a ‘Swiss’ or simply a ‘Mountain’ scene,1 this subject was identified by Cecilia Powell.2 On the skyline is the tower of a small castle, Burg Reschenstein, on the narrow neck of the heights within a tight meander of the River Ilz, which flows away northwards to the right here and then round another loop behind this viewpoint, south past the ruined castle at Hals to Passau, both of which are represented in this sketchbook (see the Introduction).
Powell has noted described the scene in detail:
The neck of the meander was cut through in 1827–9 by a tunnel containing both a water channel and a narrow walkway. ... Together with the adjacent boom, it enabled enormous amounts of driftwood from the Bavarian forest to make the passage down to the great shipbuilding centre of Passau ... With its delicate colouring Turner’s drawing captures all the charm and freshness of this scene, and he even indicates the entrance to the tunnel by what seems at first sight to be simply a misty gorge between two parts of the steep hillside to the right. The river itself contains a quantity of driftwood ...3
Eric Shanes tentatively linked the present work with a loose ‘colour beginning’ (Tate D25359; Turner Bequest CCLXIII 237).4 It apparently shows craggy hills at the side of a river or lake, bisected by the diagonal edge of a shadow between the skyline and the water, with what may be a castle with a triangular turret or spire on the skyline at the left; any general similarity in terrain is probably fortuitous, and the composition may well be considerably earlier, given its 1819 watermark.
Verso:
Blank; inscribed in pencil ‘1’ centre; stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram over ‘CCCXL – 1’ towards bottom left.
Matthew Imms
September 2018
How to cite
Matthew Imms, ‘Burg Reschenstein, on the River Ilz near Passau 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