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 ... > Copenhagen to Dresden Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Entrance to Christianshavn and the Fortifications of Copenghagen (in Three Instalments) 1835

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Entrance to Christianshavn and the Fortifications of Copenghagen (in Three Instalments)’ 1835
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 57 Recto
The Entrance to Christianshavn and the Fortifications of Copenghagen (in Three Instalments) 1835
D31132
Turner Bequest CCCVII 57
Pencil on cream laid paper, 89 x 162 mm
Watermarked with a beehive surrounded by garlands and bees
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘3’, ‘L’, ‘4’, ‘[...]’ top centre towards left; ‘Bricks’ bottom left on the fortifications
Inscribed in red ink by Ruskin ‘57’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCCVII–57’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Here Turner depicts the entrance to Christianshavn in Copenhagen. The view is rendered in three instalments: at the top the Church of Our Saviour with its helix spire can be seen along with boats docked at the harbour; at centre and rear are fortifications laid out in the seventeenth century. Turner has inscribed the notes ‘3’, ‘L’, ‘4’, ‘[...]’ in the sky next to the Church of Our Saviour and ‘Bricks’ to describe the building material used in the construction of the fortifications (bottom left).
For other drawings of Copenhagen see Tate D30824–D30829, D30832–D30833, D30859, D30861, D30873, D30881, D30883, D30887, D31120–D31137; Turner Bequest CCCV 2–5, 6a–7, 20, 21, 27, 31, 32, 34, CCCVII 51–59a.

Alice Rylance-Watson
May 2015

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘The Entrance to Christianshavn and the Fortifications of Copenghagen (in Three Instalments) 1835 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, May 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-the-entrance-to-christianshavn-and-the-fortifications-of-r1187007, accessed 30 June 2024.