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

This is one of twenty-eight sketches of mountain scenes (some including castles and other buildings) on the rectos and versos of sixteen pieces of grey paper torn carefully from a single sheet; they were likely all made in the vicinity of Innsbruck within a short period around 23 September 1833, when Turner was travelling back from Venice towards the end of his tour, as discussed in the Introduction to the present subsection.1

Turner’s scrawled inscription appears to begin ‘S^t Martin’, presumably referring either to the to the steep Martinswand precipice on the fringes of the Karwendel Alps to the left, or the elevated hamlet of Martinsbühel below it, above the River Inn. The identification is by comparison with D33849 (CCCXLI 160), which includes the same features in the background of a wider view from near the Kalvarienberg church north-east of Zirl, about seven miles west of Innsbruck; see that entry for numerous nearby subjects, and a note on two of Turner’s watercolours formerly thought to show the Martinswand. Its verso (D33850; CCCXLI 160v) is a relatively detailed variant of the present view, and is inscribed in a similar way.

The verso is D33857 (CCCXLI 165v), where the subject is inverted relative to this one, showing comparable scenery by moonlight.

Technical notes:

There is slight brown staining, and a pale, steeply diagonal line at the bottom left, apparently indicating a former crease, with a corresponding mark on the verso (D33857).