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

D24776, D25101, D28960, D28971, D28993, D28997, D29006, D29011–D29012, D32185–D32188, D32190, D33871, D34081, D34084–D34085, D34093, D34515, D34516, D35889, D35948, D36150–D36151, D36153, D36157–D36158, D36162, D36174, D36187

Turner Bequest CCLIX 211, CCLXII 1, CCXCII 13, 24, 46, 49, 57, 60–61, CCCXVII 6–9, 11, CCCXLI 174, 360, 363–364, 371, CCCXLIV 151, 152, CCCLXIV 49, 105, 293–294, 296, 300–301, 305, 316, 329

This section comprises separate sheets of studies, mostly in colour on grey, white or brown sheets, of subjects in southern Germany, complementing pencil drawings in the sketchbooks Turner used on his return journey from Venice in September 1840. The majority are on the pale grey English Bally, Ellen and Steart paper he had brought with him, also used previously among other sorts and colours on his outward journey and in Venice (see the listing in the technical notes to the overall Introduction).

There are no identified subjects on individual sheets from the first part of this return leg through Trieste, Graz and Vienna and westwards up the Austrian reaches of the River Danube. Turner used the Trieste, Graz and Danube sketchbook (Tate; Turner Bequest CCXCIX) during this phase, and it includes a view of the first of the subjects included here, Burg Krämpelstein (Tate D28971; Turner Bequest CCXCII 24), overlooking the river where it marks the German-Austrian border. From there he continued just upstream into Germany, pausing first at Passau (D28993, D29006, D33871; CCXCII 46, 57, CCCXLI 174), with an excursion up the narrower River Ilz to the compact but dramatically situated ruins of Burg Hals (D24776, D28960, D28997, D29011–D29012, D36162; CCLIX 211, CCXCII 13, 49, 60, 61, CCCLXIV 305).

He also drew these sites in his pocket sketchbooks; Passau first makes an appearance in the Trieste, Graz and Danube book (by then almost full), before he took up Venice; Passau to Würzburg again (Tate; Turner Bequest CCCX). He found the city and castle compelling enough to start a larger soft-backed ‘roll’ book of white paper he had carried from London; now known as Passau and Burg Hals (Tate; Turner Bequest CCCXL), it includes pencil and watercolour views, complementing the sheets in the present subsection. Turner’s exploration of Passau led to one finished watercolour, Passau, Germany, at the Confluence of the Rivers Inn and Danube (National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin).1 The Burg Hals studies on brown sheets are particularly technically significant (see under D36162); he only visited the area in 1840, and used some of the same distinctive Italian paper he had in Venice, as discussed in the overall Introduction to the tour.

Turner next stayed at Regensburg (D32185, D34081, D36150–D36151, D36153; CCCXVII 6, CCCXLI 360, CCCLXIV 293, 294, 296), and also made numerous studies of the temple-like Walhalla monument, then nearing completion at Donaustauf in the countryside not far down the Danube from the city (D34084–D34085, D34093; CCCXLI 363, 364, 371), alongside drawings in the Venice; Passau to Würzburg book. There is also an atmospheric watercolour study on white paper (D36174; CCLXIV 316); as discussed in its entry, it has been linked to three technically similar Regensburg views in other collections, which may have been executed during the tour or shortly afterwards.

Basing himself subsequently in Coburg, the artist visited nearby Schloss Rosenau (D32186–D32188, D32190; CCCXVII 7–9, 11), as also featured in the Venice; Passau to Würzburg book. Again, there are three loose watercolour studies which may be from a little later (D35889, D35948, D36187; CCCLXIV 49, 105, 329). Lastly, he made two detailed pencil drawings on white sheets at Würzburg (D34515–D34516; CCCXLIV 151, 152, under which two watercolours elsewhere are noted), as well as views on coloured papers (D25101, D36157–D36158; CCLXII 1, CCCLXIV 300, 301). These supplemented a long run of pencil studies in and around the city in the Würzburg, Rhine and Ostend sketchbook (Tate; Turner Bequest CCCIII). That book’s modern title succinctly indicates Turner’s route back to London, and includes a lengthy sequence of long-familiar castles and other sites down the Rhine, some of which he had already drawn on the same grey paper as he travelled towards Venice, as set out in a parallel subsection. There are various finished marine watercolours in other collections now identified as Ostend subjects, as discussed under Tate D30460 (Turner Bequest CCCIII 1).

As will be seen from the individual entries, the identifications and dating of these sheets are particularly indebted to Cecilia Powell’s research for her 1995 Tate Gallery exhibition Turner in Germany, when many were exhibited and others noted in the context of the 1840 tour.