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

The view is west over the moat along the north-eastern corner of Augsburg’s Jakobervorstadt district, on the eastern side of the city. The elaborate Renaissance tower at the centre is the Sankt-Jakobs-Wasserturm (or Jakober Wasserturm), on the Gänsbühl. The city walls of which it once formed a part do not survive in the immediate vicinity. In the distance to the south-west is the onion dome of St Maximilian’s Church, with the low afternoon sun above, its reflection indicated with a characteristic zig-zag ripple in the foreground.

The water-tower was built in the early seventeenth century as the lower (‘untere’) of two similar structures along this section of the wall, and is still sometimes designated as such, albeit the nearby upper (‘obere’) tower was destroyed in 1944;1 it is apparently shown on folios 4 recto and verso (D32548–D32549; CCCXXII 4, 4a).

This is one of a sequence between folios 2 recto and 6 recto (D32544–D32552; CCCXXII 3–7) comprising a clockwise survey of the Jakobervorstadt’s walls, with their picturesque towers and gatehouses; see under the view of Augsburg’s cathedral on folio 1 verso (D32543; CCCXXII 2a) for other views in and around the city from this tour.

Technical notes:

The pale brown staining at the centre of the outer edge is owing to the leaf’s proximity to the leather pencil loop anchored under the front paste-down (D32541; CCCXXII 1).