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

With the page used vertically both ways, there are three sketches here. Trying to make sense of Turner’s crabbed inscriptions, Finberg later annotated his 1909 Inventory entry (‘Street scene, and mountain scene. – “Thomsberg (?),” “Climston,” “Ref...,” &c.’): ‘?Trostburg’ over the first transcribed word;1 he also noted ‘Trento CFB’,2 acknowledging the Turner scholar C.F. Bell, who marked another copy: ‘Trento?’.3 The latter suggestion is incorrect, as discussed below, while Castel Trostburg, a few miles from Bolzano (Bozen) is shown elsewhere in this sketchbook; see under folio 54 verso (D31704).

There is a sequence of views around Castel Firmiano (Schloss Sigmundskron, now a museum) on its crag overlooking the Adige (Etsch) Valley south-east of Bolzano on folios 43 verso–47 recto (D31682–D31689). This page is part of a run between folios 47 verso and 50 recto (D31690–D31695) largely devoted to multiple interrelated subjects in the nearby valley of the Torrente Talvera (Talferbach), which Turner would revisit in 1840, immediately north-west of the city; for other views in the vicinity and Bolzano’s place within this sketchbook’s itinerary, see under folio 1 verso (D31598).

The inverted bottom view appears to show Castel Sant’Antonio (Schloss Klebenstein) east of a wooden bridge since replaced by the Sankt-Anton-Brücke, looking downstream to the south. Compare the left-hand side of an 1840 watercolour study on grey paper (Tate D36154; Turner Bequest CCCLXIV 297). The middle sketch on this page shows the cylindrical Torre Druso (Treuenstein) opposite the castle, as part of a prospect continued on D31695 opposite; the other half is similar to the first study here, making the double-page spread of the middle register comparable to the overall view in the watercolour. Trees along the banks now interrupt the sightlines.

Squeezed in later in the top third, the unrelated street scene tentatively identified as Trento by Bell and Finberg (for which see under folio 37 recto; D31669), actually shows Maximilianstrasse, Augsburg, looking north, with the Rathaus in the immediate right foreground and the tall Perlachturm just beyond. There is a view from further forward on folio 30 recto (D31655), also showing the castellated building in the distance here, which does not survive; nor do the heavily articulated buildings in the left foreground. Compare a detailed mid nineteenth-century pencil drawing by William Callow, from near the base of the Perlachturm (Tate A00137). The latter is seen from further off on folios 65 recto and verso (D31724–D31725); for other views of the city, see under D31655.