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

The medieval city of Regensburg in southern Germany is shown to the south-west across the River Danube, with the long Steinerne Brücke downstream, as Cecilia Powell recognised;1 the work had previously long been thought to show ‘Tours’,2 the French city on the Loire (compare the 1833 Annual Tour engravings; Tate impressions: T04685–T04686, T05579–T05580, T06198). The twin towers of Regensburg Cathedral, towards the left (as yet lacking their slender spires), are the most clearly articulated features of the city. Turner made numerous pencil drawings in the vicinity in the contemporary Venice, Passau to Würzburg book; see under Tate D31311 (Turner Bequest CCCX 18a). Compare in particular views over the river on D31351, D31359, D31361, D31363, D31365 (CCCX 38a, 42a, 43a, 44a, 45a).

This work is technically comparable to a colour study of the view south from the bridge itself, apparently in early morning light (Tate D36150; Turner Bequest CCCLXIV 293), where the city is rendered in more detail.3 That sheet is among seven direct drawings of Regensburg and the nearby Walhalla at Donaustauf which initially formed a single sheet (see also D32185, D34081, D34084–D34085, D34093, D36153; CCCXVII 6, CCCXLI 360, 363, 364, 371, CCCLXIV 296); three of the city views were worked up over their pencil outlines with watercolour and gouache. Powell has described their ‘sombre colours, sometimes articulated by dark penwork. The gravity ... exactly reflects the prevailing mood of Regensburg itself’,4 albeit Turner subsequently imparted a characteristically radiant effect to a watercolour on white paper from a viewpoint further off, identified by Ian Warrell as ‘Regensburg from the Danube, with the Cathedral and Stone Bridge, at Sunset’5 (traditionally ‘Lyons’; Victoria and Albert Museum, London);6 see the overall Introduction to the tour for other Regensburg watercolours.

With a waxing crescent moon introduced with a single white stroke in the afterglow, the present treatment complements that subject, although Turner was in the vicinity around the middle of September 1840, when the moon was just past its fullest.7 It is generally a moot point as to when colour was added to such sheets, so this may simply be retrospective artistic license, as well as serving to indicate the direction of the sunset; see also a colour study of Burg Hals, near Passau, where Turner had been a day or two before, with the evening moon shown in the same phase (Tate D24776; Turner Bequest CCLIX 211).

Technical notes:

Before their subjects and dates had been firmly established, Andrew Wilton suggested a technical link between this composition among several ‘on the Rhine and at Botzen’ (Tate D36149–D36158; Turner Bequest CCCLXIV 292–301) and Venice subjects of 1840 on similar grey paper;1 most of those works have since been confirmed as from this tour. Cecilia Powell has confirmed this sheet as part of a larger one made in 1829 by Bally, Ellen and Steart,2 of the type Turner used often in 1840 (see the Introduction to the overall tour); the other Regensburg views mentioned above are on sections of another such sheet.

Powell observed that the ‘colouring, style and technique ... have much in common with those of Turner’s grey paper drawings of Venice of a fortnight or so earlier: the juxtaposition of different blues, purples and muted reds and the use of vigorous penwork in a variety of inks for foreground details is especially noteworthy’, mentioning Tate D32213 and D32214 (Turner Bequest CCCXVII 28, 29) for comparison.3

Verso:

Blank, save for spots or offsets of green-blue colour at the centre right; stamped in black with Turner Bequest monogram over ‘CCCLXIV – 294’ towards bottom right.