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

Turner used this page for three subjects, one above the other. As discussed in the Introduction, Cecilia Powell has noted that fifteen of the views in this sketchbook (folios 10 recto, 11 recto, this page, folios 13 recto and verso; D30020, D30022, D30025–D30027) are thumbnail sketches from existing prints, mostly lithographs by Jakob Alt (1789–1872), likely seen in Turner’s Vienna hotel,1 from Adolf Kunike and Alt’s Donau-Ausichten vom Ursprunge bis zum Ausflusse in Meer (‘Danube views from its source to the sea’), issued between 1819 and the mid 1820s.2 All three of the subjects here appear in direct sketches elsewhere in this book.

At the top is Schloss Wallsee (Alt, plate 64),3 above the south bank of the river at Wallsee-Sindelburg, east of Linz; for Turner’s own drawings on this journey and in 1833, see under folio 8 verso (D30017).

The other two subjects are related, and only inscribed with one place name. In the middle are Burg Werfenstein beyond the Strudel rapids, with Schloss Wörth on its island in the right foreground (Alt, plate 69),4 east of Grein. The rapids no longer exist; for Turner’s sketches, see respectively under folios 31 verso and 32 recto (D30059–D30060). There is a copy of a different print of the scene on folio 13 recto opposite (D30026). The last drawing on the present page is a closer view of Werfenstein alone (Alt, plate 72).5