Ein Bild von der Walhalla anlässlich der Eröffnungsfeierlichkeiten
The Opening of the Wallhalla, 1842 exhibited 1843 Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775-1851 Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/N00533
seven tours of Germany. In Turner’s time,
Germany consisted of many different
states, formed as the German
Confederation in 1814 after the fall of
Napoleon, who had ruled since 1806.
This painting commemorates the 1842
opening of the Walhalla temple (‘Wallhalla’
in Turner’s spelling), a classical building
overlooking the river Danube, constructed
under the auspices of king Ludwig I of
Bavaria as a symbol of national unity
and a monument to great Germans of
the past.
At the Royal Academy, Turner exhibited the
painting with lines from his poem Fallacies of
Hope:
‘L’honneur au Roi de Bavière’:
Who rode on thy relentless car, fallacious Hope?
He, though scathed at Ratisbon, poured on
The tide of war o’er all thy plain, Bavare,
Like the swollen Danube to the gates of Wien.
But peace returns – the morning ray
Beams on the Wallhalla, reared to science, and
the arts,
For men renowned, of German fatherland.
Ein weiteres Bild von der Walhalla, das in der Zeit von 1840-1842 datiert wird
The Walhalla, near Regensburg on the Danube circa 1840-2 Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775-1851 Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/D36174
