Joseph Mallord William Turner Passau, with the Confluence of the Rivers Danube and Inn, from above the River Ilz 1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner,
Passau, with the Confluence of the Rivers Danube and Inn, from above the River Ilz
1840
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Passau, with the Confluence of the Rivers Danube and Inn, from above the River Ilz 1840
D33668
Turner Bequest CCCXL 3
Turner Bequest CCCXL 3
Pencil and watercolour on white wove paper, 213 x 279 mm
Watermark ‘R Turner’
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom centre
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘[?1528]’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCCXL – 3’ bottom right
Watermark ‘R Turner’
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram towards bottom centre
Inscribed by John Ruskin in blue ink ‘[?1528]’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCCXL – 3’ 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 (447, as ‘Grenoble’).
1937
Aquarelles de Turner, oeuvres de Blake/Englischen Graphiken und Aquarellen: W. Blake und J.M.W. Turner, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, January–February 1937, Staatliche Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna, March–April 1937 (114, as ‘Grenoble’).
1969
Royal Academy Draughtsmen 1769–1969, British Museum, London, June–September 1969 (315, as ‘Grenoble’).
1972
J.M.W. Turner: Gemälde Aquarelle, Nationalgalerie Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, September–November 1972 (108).
1973
Turner {1775 / 1851}: desenhos, aguarelas e óleos / Drawings, Watercolours and Oil Paintings, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, June–July 1973 (52, as ‘View of a Town (on the Rhine?)’, reproduced).
1974
Turner 1775–1851, Royal Academy, London, November 1974–March 1975 (584, as ‘Passau’, c.1840).
1975
Turner 1775–1851: zhivopis', risunok, akvarel', Hermitage Museum, Leningrad, October–November 1975, Pushkin Museum, Moscow, December 1975–January 1976 (75, as ‘[Passau]’).
1976
J.M.W. Turner 1775–1851: Akvareller og Tegninger fra British Museum, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, February–May 1976 (79, as ‘Passau’, c.1840, reproduced).
1976
William Turner und die Landschaft seiner Zeit, Hamburger Kunsthalle, May–July 1976 (107, as ‘Passau’, reproduced).
1982
J.M.W. Turner Watercolors from the British Museum, Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, Athens, March–May 1982, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, May–July 1982 (76, as ‘Passau on the Danube’, reproduced).
1995
Turner in Germany, Tate Gallery, London, May–September 1995, Städtische Kunsthalle Mannheim, September 1995–January 1996, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, January–March 1996 (85, as ‘Passau: The Confluence from above the Ilz’, 1840, reproduced in colour).
2001
William Turner: Licht und Farbe, Museum Folkwang, Essen, September 2001–January 2002, Kunsthaus Zürich, February–May 2002 (170, as ‘Passau: the confluence of the Ilz and the Danube’, reproduced in colour).
2008
Colour and Line: Turner’s Experiments [third hang], Tate Britain, London, October 2008–December 2009 (no catalogue, as ‘Passau: The Confluence from above the Ilz’).
References
1899
John Ruskin, Catalogue of the Drawings and Sketches by J.M.W. Turner, R.A. at Present Exhibited in the National Gallery: Revised, and Cast into Progressive Groups, with Explanatory Notes: Third Edition, Revised and Illustrated, London 1899, reproduced opposite p.23, as ‘Grenoble’.
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.313 no.316, pp.367 and 630 no.447, as ‘Grenoble’, pl.XVIII.
1909
A.J. Finberg, A Complete Inventory of the Drawings of the Turner Bequest, London 1909, vol.II, p.1064, CCCXL 3, as ‘Grenoble (?). Exhibited Drawings, No.447, N.G.’.
1937
Laurence Binyon, Ausstellung von englischen Graphiken und Aquarellen: W. Blake und J.M.W. Turner, exhibition catalogue, Staatliche Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna 1937, p.28 no.113, as ‘Grenoble’.
1969
Andrew Wilton, Royal Academy Draughtsmen 1769–1969, exhibition catalogue, British Museum, London 1969, p.[35] no.315, as ‘Grenoble’.
1972
Werner Haftmann, Andrew Wilton, Henning Bock and others, J.M.W. Turner: Gemälde Aquarelle, exhibition catalogue, Nationalgalerie Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, September–November 1972, p.124 no.108.
1973
Norman Reid, Andrew Wilton and Luke Herrmann, Turner {1775 / 1851}: desenhos, aguarelas e óleos / Drawings, Watercolours and Oil Paintings, exhibition catalogue, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon 1973, p.132 no.52, as ‘View of a Town (on the Rhine?)’, reproduced p.133.
1840
Andrew Wilton in Martin Butlin, Wilton and John Gage, Turner 1775–1851, exhibition catalogue, Royal Academy, London 1974, p.161 no.584, as ‘Passau’, c.1840.
1975
Graham Reynolds, Turner 1775–1851: zhivopis', risunok, akvarel', exhibition catalogue, Hermitage Museum, Leningrad 1975, p.47 no.75, as ‘[Passau]’.
1840
David Loshak and Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner 1775–1851: Akvareller og Tegninger fra British Museum, exhibition catalogue, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen 1976, reproduced p.76, p.77 no.79, as ‘Passau’, c.1840).
1976
Werner Hofmann, Andrew Wilton, Siegmar Hosten and others, William Turner und die Landschaft seiner Zeit, exhibition catalogue, Hamburger Kunsthalle 1976, p.152 no.107, as ‘Passau’, reproduced.
1979
Andrew Wilton, J.M.W. Turner: His Life and Work, Fribourg 1979, p.458 under no.1317.
1982
Lindsay Stainton in Stainton and Richard S. Schneiderman, J.M.W. Turner Watercolors from the British Museum, exhibition catalogue, Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, Athens 1982, p.77 no.76, as ‘Passau on the Danube’, reproduced.
1982
Andrew Wilton, Turner Abroad: France; Italy; Germany; Switzerland, London 1982, p.56 no.72, as ‘Passau’, 1833–5, pl.72 (colour).
1988
Barbara Dawson, Turner in the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin 1988, p.116, as ‘Passau, Germany’, fig.40.
1995
Cecilia Powell, Turner in Germany, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1995, pp.157–8 no.85, as ‘Passau: The Confluence from above the Ilz’, 1840, reproduced in colour, 158–9 under no.87, 244.
2001
Andrew Wilton, Inge Bodesohn-Vogel and Helena Robinson, William Turner: Licht und Farbe, exhibition catalogue, Museum Folkwang, Essen 2001, reproduced in colour p.231, p.353 no.170, as ‘Passau: the confluence of the Ilz and the Danube’, 1840.
2012
Niam Mac Nally in Anne Hodge and Mac Nally, The Works of J.M.W. Turner at the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin 2012, p.102, fig.63 (colour).
John Ruskin supposed this1 and other urban views in this sketchbook2 showed Grenoble, at the foot of the French Alps, nowhere near Turner’s itinerary on the present tour, perhaps on account of the confluence of waterways which he may have thought were the Rivers Drac and Isère (see the Introduction to this sketchbook). By 1973 it was suggested as a Rhine view,3 and Andrew Wilton published the true identification the following year,4 and rightly compared the view to pencil studies in the contemporary Venice; Passau to Würzburg sketchbook (Tate D31384, D31386; Turner Bequest CCCX 55, 56); see also D31383, D31385 and D31387 (CCCX 54a, 55a, 56a).
Cecilia Powell has described Passau as ‘superbly situated at the confluence of three rivers’:
the blue Danube, the green Inn and the black Ilz as they are popularly described. From high viewpoints it can be observed that both the first two retain their own distinctive colouring (if not precisely the hues above) for a considerable distance below the confluence.5
Here, the view is south-west across the mouth of the Ilz at the bottom left, where it joins the Danube between the Ilzstadt, with the spire of St Bartholomew’s Church, and the Niederhaus fortifications directly overlooking the confluence. The heights crowned by the Oberhaus fortress on the right tower over the Danube, while beyond the Altstadt peninsula at the heart of the city, the view to the middle distance is up the Inn.6 Powell has observed that here ‘Passau seems to be a tiny island city, floating in mist’.7 Wilton has suggested that the ‘pale washes over their delicate but precise skeleton of pencil-work constitute a tour de force in the economical yet concrete evocation of space and atmosphere.’8
Two less detailed contemporary colour studies and third in pencil on grey paper show closely variant views (Tate D28993, D29006, D33871; Turner Bequest CCXCII 46, 57, CCCXLI 174),9 while D33674–D33675 (CCCXL 9–10), at the back of the present sketchbook, presents a panoramic view over the city and confluence from west of the Oberhaus, beyond the crest on the right here. For other views of Passau from this tour, see the book’s Introduction.
Wilton has noted that a finished watercolour, Passau, Germany, at the Confluence of the Rivers Inn and Danube (National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin),10 shows a ‘rather similar’ prospect to this one;11 the colouring and misty effects are indeed comparable, but the viewpoint there is a notional one, south of the hillside viewpoint here, as if hovering east of the end of the Altstadt between the two main rivers, looking west into a dazzlingly bright sunset sky, and the details are worked up over the washes with a network of fine lines and stippling, anticipating the treatment of finished late Swiss subjects of the early 1840s (such as 1842’s The Blue Rigi, Sunrise, Tate T12336).12 The Dublin watercolour’s composition may have been suggested by a jumbled page of pencil studies from the confluence in the contemporary Trieste, Graz and Danube sketchbook (Tate D30036; Turner Bequest CCXCIX 18).
Technical notes:
The thick yellow strokes towards the bottom right retain a slightly glossy finish. The loose grey washes in the foreground have a dappled appearance here and there where the rapid strokes have left pigment pooled on the sized surface of the bare sheet.
Verso:
Blank; inscribed in pencil ‘3’ centre; stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram over ‘CCCXL – 3’ below centre.
Matthew Imms
September 2018
How to cite
Matthew Imms, ‘Passau, with the Confluence of the Rivers Danube and Inn, from above the River Ilz 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