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

Finberg later annotated his 1909 Inventory entry (‘The Herzog Friedrich-Strasse, Innsbruck, with the Goldne [sic] Dachl; also view of “Botzen” – “22 Sepr.”’): ‘X cf. p.999’.1 This is in reference to fortuitously similar mid-September dates noted by Turner in his 1840 Venice; Passau to Würzburg sketchbook (Tate; Turner Bequest CCCX), when the itinerary was quite different.

The present page includes two sketches, both inverted relative to the book’s foliation. The mountain view at the top, helpfully labelled ‘22 Sep^tr’ and ‘Botzen’2 (then the customary spelling), shows Bolzano (Bozen) in the distance, apparently east-north-east up the broad valley of the Isarco (Eisack) as seen from around where the modern Via Oltradige bridge crosses the Adige; compare the mountain profiles on folio 2 recto (D31599), part of a broader view continued on folio 1 verso (D31598), where the position of nearby Castel Firmiano (Schloss Sigmundskron) suggests the viewpoint. See under the latter page for numerous other sketches of the castle and city scattered through this book. The same date appears on another small Bolzano view, on folio 21 verso (D31638).

The more prominent view here, as Finberg recognised,3 shows Herzog-Friedrich-Strasse in Innsbruck, looking slightly west of north from about level with Schlossergasse and Stiftgasse. The projecting corner with a small dark arch in the left foreground survives, with irregular exposed stone dressing up to the second floor just as Turner observed it. From this far back, the looming peaks of the Karwendel Alps north of the city appear level with the cupola crowning the medieval Stadtturm’s elaborate upper stages. The Goldenes Dachl (‘golden roof’), a renowned landmark, is inconspicuous at the end of the street, but shown more prominently in the view from near the base of the tower on folio 52 recto (D31699).

Turner was first recorded in the picturesque medieval and Baroque city on the River Inn (now the capital of the Austrian state of Tyrol) on 3 September, as he travelled southwards from Salzburg towards Venice.4 He had drawn various aspects in its centre and outskirts in the Venice up to Vienna sketchbook (Tate D31521–D31530, D31543–D31544; Turner Bequest CCCXI 53a–58, 65, 65a), including two with the Stadtturm from further back (D31523, D31525; CCCXI 54a, 55a). Now, roughly seventy miles on from Bolzano via the Brenner Pass, he was again noted in the 26 September issue of the Intelligenz-Blatt zum K.K. priv. Bothen von und für Tirol und Vorarlberg, as having arrived on the 23rd.5 This time, other than the present page and D31699, he drew nearby on folio 28 recto and possibly its verso (D31651–D31652), and surveyed the city and mountains to the north from the heights of the Bergisel (folio 67 verso; D31729). See also folio 35 recto (D31655), showing a monument in the countryside not far to the south.

The only other visit seems to have been in 1843, as recorded briefly in the Dover, Rhine and Innsbruck book (Tate D31265–D31266, Turner Bequest CCCIX 22a, 23).6 For Innsbruck’s place in Turner’s 1833 homeward route, and the likely timespan of this sketchbook’s use, see its Introduction.