Oil paint on canvas
Germany
Tate Collection
Works with images
Joseph Mallord William Turner
Turner Bequest
Oil paintings
Collection
Turner owned by Tate
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/joseph-mallord-william-turner-558" aria-label="More by Joseph Mallord William Turner" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Joseph Mallord William Turner</a>
Castle in an Alpine Valley called Heidelberg
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
adults
architecture
cities, towns, villages (non-UK)
countries and continents
court dress
crowd
dress: ceremonial/royal
Frederick V, Elector Palatine
Germany
groups
Heidelberg, Heidelberg Castle
landscape
leisure and pastimes
man
mountain
named individuals
party
people
places
recreational activities
society
Stuart, Elizabeth, Princess
townscape, distant
townscapes / man-made features
tree
woman
<p>Turner never exhibited this painting and its subject is elusive. Showing a gathering beneath a castle amid snow-capped peaks, it has traditionally been called ‘Heidelberg’ after the German castle that fascinated Turner. Heidelberg was, however, a ruin in Turner’s lifetime. While this painting might imagine Heidelberg in its heyday, the setting does not match. It more closely resembles Alpine scenery. At the bottom left sits a figure in a Renaissance-style fur-collared red robe. He is no doubt the key to the historical narrative but who is he? Research goes on to solve its puzzles.</p><p><em>Gallery label, October 2023</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
13 August 2001 – 23 June 2002
2002-06-23
13 August 2001 – 23 June 2002
2002-06-23
2001-08-13
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2001-08-13
Painting Landscape and History
Collection based display
8 July 2002 – 21 May 2007
2007-05-21
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2002-07-08
Turner and Tourism in Europe
Collection based display
20 March 2009 – 3 August 2009
2009-08-03
20 March 2009
2009-03-20
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2009-03-20
Painting Set Free: Turner at the Museum of Modern Art, New York 1966
Collection based display
5 August 2009 – 19 July 2010
2010-07-19
5 August 2009 – 19 July 2010
2010-07-19
2009-08-05
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2009-08-05
Turner Abroad
Collection based display
22 July 2010 – 9 April 2012
2012-04-09
6 August 2010 – 9 April 2012
2012-04-09
2010-08-06
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2010-07-22
Late Turner
Collection based display
21 April 2012 – 8 March 2020
2020-03-08
21 April 2012 – 8 March 2020
2020-03-08
2012-04-21
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2012-04-21
Travelling Light: European Travels
Collection based display
8 February 2013 – 13 April 2014
2014-04-13
8 February 2013 – 19 May 2013
2013-05-19
2013-02-08
Art Gallery of South Australia (Adelaide, Australia)
http://www.artgallery.sa.gov.au
4 June 2013 – 8 September 2013
2013-09-08
2013-06-04
National Gallery of Australia (Canberra, Australia)
8 October 2013 – 18 December 2013
2013-12-18
2013-10-08
Toyko Metropolitan Art Museum (Toyko, Japan)
1 January 2014 – 13 April 2014
2014-04-13
2014-01-01
Kobe City Museum (Kobe, Japan)
2013-02-08
J.M.W. Turner: Makings of a Master
Loan-out
1 September 2020 – 27 November 2022
2022-11-27
1 September 2020
2020-09-01
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2020-09-01
Clore 106
Collection based display
13 March 2023
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2023-03-13
Gallery 107
Collection based display
Castle in an Alpine Valley, called ‘Heidelberg’
support: 1336 × 2036 × 38 mm
frame: 1540 × 2248 × 82 mm
Accepted by the nation as part of the <a href="/search?gid=999999781" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Turner Bequest</a> 1856
<div class="text">
<p>Turner never exhibited this painting and its subject is elusive. Showing a gathering beneath a castle amid snow-capped peaks, it has traditionally been called ‘Heidelberg’ after the German castle that fascinated Turner. Heidelberg was, however, a ruin in Turner’s lifetime. While this painting might imagine Heidelberg in its heyday, the setting does not match. It more closely resembles Alpine scenery. At the bottom left sits a figure in a Renaissance-style fur-collared red robe. He is no doubt the key to the historical narrative but who is he? Research goes on to solve its puzzles.</p>
</div>

Display caption
2023-10-25T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>440. </b>[<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-castle-in-an-alpine-valley-called-heidelberg-n00518" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00518</span></a>] <b>Heidelberg</b> <i>c.</i> 1840–5</p>
<p>THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON (518)</p>
<p>Canvas, 52 × 79 1/2 (132 × 201)</p>
<p><b>Coll.</b> Turner Bequest 1856 (255, ‘1 [picture] (Heidelburg)’ 6'8" × 4'4"); transferred to the Tate Gallery 1929.</p>
<p><b>Exh.</b> Newcastle 1912 (52); Newcastle 1924 (162); Whitechapel 1953 (88); <i>Heidelberg im Bild der Jahrhunderte</i> Ottheinrichbau des Schlosses, Heidelberg, May–October 1957; New York 1966 (18, repr. p. 60); R.A. 1974–5 (574, repr.).</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> Thornbury 1862, i, p. 326; 1877, p. 452; Armstrong 1902, p. 222; MacColl 1920, p. 18; Davies 1946, p. 190; Rothenstein and Butlin 1964, p. 56, pl. 106; Gowing 1966, p. 38, repr, p. 60; Max Schefold, ‘William Turner im Heidelberg und am Neckar’, <i>Jahrbuch der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen in Baden-Württemberg</i> v 1968, pp. 136–7, repr. p. 131; Wilton 1979, p. 244; Wilton 1980, p. 171; Butlin 1981, p. 45.</p>
<p>A large finished picture of the kind normally exhibited by Turner, but for some reason this particular work does not seem to have been shown at the R.A. or anywhere else during his lifetime. The German subject and general <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a> are similar to the <i>Opening of the Walhalla, 1842</i>, exhibited in 1843 (No. 401 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-the-opening-of-the-wallhalla-1842-n00533" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00533</span></a>]), there being the same rather hectic air of festivity. In this case the costumes suggest that Turner was alluding to the short-lived court of the ‘Winter Queen’, Elizabeth sister of Charles I, who married Frederick Elector Palatine but who spent most of her life in exile after the failure of his attempt to hold the crown fo Bohemia. Turner has shown the castle, partly destroyed by the French in 1689, as undamaged. The picture was <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/engraving" title="Glossary definition for 'Engraving'"><span>engraved</span></a> by T.A. Prior and published in the <i>Turner Gallery</i> 1859–61, as ‘Heidelberg Castle in the olden Time’.</p>
<p>The <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> is on a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/canvas" title="Glossary definition for 'Canvas'"><span>canvas</span></a> bearing a duty stamp that implies the date 1830 (see Butlin <i>loc. cit.</i>), but, as has been suggested above, the picture seems in style and general composition to be a work of the 1840s. Andrew Wilton (1980) suggests that it follows Turner's last visit to Heidelberg in 1844.</p>
<p>There are a number of sketches of Heidelberg, Frederick's original capital, in the ‘Spires and Heidelberg’ sketchbook and the ‘Heidelberg up to Salzburg’ sketchbook of 1840 (CCXCVII and CCXCVIII).</p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, <i>The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner</i>, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-22T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults architecture cities, towns, villages (non-UK) countries and continents court dress crowd dress: ceremonial/royal Frederick V, Elector Palatine Germany groups Heidelberg, Heidelberg Castle landscape leisure and pastimes man mountain named individuals party people places recreational activities society Stuart, Elizabeth, Princess townscape, distant townscapes / man-made features tree woman