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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Southern Germany, Austria and Venice ... > Rotterdam and Rhine sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The North Side of the Catholic Church of SS. Ulrich and Afra, Augsburg, with the Evangelical Church of St Ulrich 1833

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The North Side of the Catholic Church of SS. Ulrich and Afra, Augsburg, with the Evangelical Church of St Ulrich’ 1833
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 7 Recto:
The North Side of the Catholic Church of SS. Ulrich and Afra, Augsburg, with the Evangelical Church of St Ulrich 1833
D32554
Turner Bequest CCCXXII 8
Pencil on white laid paper, 105 x 170 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘[...]’ towards bottom left
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘7’ top right, ascending vertically (smudged and faint)
Stamped in black ‘CCCXXII – 7’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Augsburg’s Late Gothic former abbey church of SS. Ulrich and Afra and its tower dominate the scene, viewed from to the south across Ulrichsplatz at the end of Maximilianstrasse. From this angle the Baroque north front of the smaller Evangelical church of St Ulrich, a self-contained wing of its looming Catholic neighbour, is at the centre, with its scrolled gables and unusual oriel-style projecting cupola.1
There is a complementary vertical study of the east end and tower of SS. Ulrich and Afra on folio 6 verso opposite (D32553; CCCXXII 7a), under which other views are noted. The present drawing is the last of a continuous sequence beginning with Augsburg’s cathedral on folio 1 verso (D32543; CCCXXII 2a); see that entry for Turner’s extensive sketches in and around the city.
1
See ‘Evangelisch Sankt Ulrich’, Augsburgwiki, accessed 17 September 2019, https://www.augsburgwiki.de/index.php/AugsburgWiki/EvangelischSanktUlrich.
Technical notes:
The pale brown staining at the centre of the outer edge is owing to the leaf’s proximity to the leather pencil loop anchored under the front paste-down (D32541; CCCXXII 1).

Matthew Imms
November 2019

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The North Side of the Catholic Church of SS. Ulrich and Afra, Augsburg, with the Evangelical Church of St Ulrich 1833 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, November 2019, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, March 2023, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-north-side-of-the-catholic-church-of-ss-ulrich-and-afra-r1204020, accessed 22 July 2024.