Finberg compared this subject, which he did not identify, with that on folio 17 verso of this sketchbook (
D04672), which from its inscription he thought was probably Luchsingen, near Glarus; that however cannot be the case and the latter is more likely to show the castle of Küssaberg, near Lauchringen. In any case the two subjects are not the same, and as Robert Upstone was the first to recognise this is a view of Baden and the castle of Stein, seen from the south-east as Turner approached it from Zurich, for which see especially folio 11 verso (
D04660). Its slightness suggests it was a first impression, jotted down as he travelled. For others similar, from rather further away from the town, see folios 10 and 63 (
D04658,
D04720). Summary as these memoranda are, and despite the fact that, as David Hill notes, none ‘offers a particularly characteristic view of the site’, two formed the basis of later watercolours, in the case of the present sketch one of 1808–9 (private collection).
1 In addition to the views from the approach road, this sketchbook contains others from within the town or from the River Limmat; see especially folio 59 (
D04716), but also, with varying degrees of certainty, folios 57, 58, 63 verso–64, 64 verso–65 (
D04714,
D04715,
D04721–D04722,
D04723–D04724).
