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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Northern Germany, the Elbe and Prague ... > Prague, Nuremberg, Frankfurt and Rhine ... > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Frankfurt: View across the Main with the Leonardskirche, Rententurm, Katharinenkirche and Nikolaikirche; Houses on the Maininsel; The Cathedral and Bridge from across the Main 1835

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Frankfurt: View across the Main with the Leonardskirche, Rententurm, Katharinenkirche and Nikolaikirche; Houses on the Maininsel; The Cathedral and Bridge from across the Main’ 1835
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 33 Recto:
Frankfurt: View across the Main with the Leonardskirche, Rententurm, Katharinenkirche and Nikolaikirche; Houses on the Maininsel; The Cathedral and Bridge from across the Main 1835
D30692
Turner Bequest CCCIV 33
Pencil on cream laid paper, 118 x 190 mm
Watermark with the Lion of the Seven Provinces
Inscribed in red ink by Ruskin ‘33’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCCIV–33’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Here Turner has produced three views of Frankfurt from various vantage points on the banks of the River Main. Two of the views, rendered inversely to one another, run across the page. The first shows the twin-towered Leonardskirche, followed by the turreted Rententurm tower and the Katharinenkirche. The second depicts a series of houses overlooking the river from the Maininsel. The prospect parallel to the gutter of the sketchbook shows Frankfurt Cathedral and the Alte Brücke (Old Bridge). The Cathedral tower is continued onto the folio opposite (Tate D30691; Turner Bequest CCCIV 32a).
For more drawings of Frankfurt see Tate D30678–D30679, D30684–D30698, D30700–D30705; Turner Bequest CCCIV 26–26a, 29–36, 37–39a.

Alice Rylance-Watson
December 2015

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Frankfurt: View across the Main with the Leonardskirche, Rententurm, Katharinenkirche and Nikolaikirche; Houses on the Maininsel; The Cathedral and Bridge from across the Main 1835 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, December 2015, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, August 2017, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-frankfurt-view-across-the-main-with-the-leonardskirche-r1187068, accessed 06 January 2025.