Between 1817 and 1844, Turner made seven tours of Germany. In Turner’s time, Germany consisted of many different states, formed as the German Confederation in 1814 after the fall of Napoleon, who had ruled since 1806. This painting commemorates the 1842 opening of the Walhalla temple (‘Wallhalla’ in Turner’s spelling), a classical building overlooking the river Danube, constructed under the auspices of king Ludwig I of Bavaria as a symbol of national unity and a monument to great Germans of the past.

At the Royal Academy, Turner exhibited the painting with lines from his poem Fallacies of Hope:

‘L’honneur au Roi de Bavière’:

Who rode on thy relentless car, fallacious Hope?

He, though scathed at Ratisbon, poured on

The tide of war o’er all thy plain, Bavare,

Like the swollen Danube to the gates of Wien.

But peace returns – the morning ray

Beams on the Wallhalla, reared to science, and the arts,

For men renowned, of German fatherland.