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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and French ... > Holland Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The East End of Ghent Cathedral and Nearby Buildings, from the Reep Canal; Studies of Boats 1825

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The East End of Ghent Cathedral and Nearby Buildings, from the Reep Canal; Studies of Boats’ 1825
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 205 Recto:
The East End of Ghent Cathedral and Nearby Buildings, from the Reep Canal; Studies of Boats 1825
D19246
Turner Bequest CCXIV 205
Pencil on white wove paper, 95 x 205 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘5’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCXIV – 205’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned horizontally, the view is west towards the east end and west tower of Ghent Cathedral (the Sint-Baafskathedral). Finberg suggested it as ‘probably St. Michael’s, Ghent’,1 but that church, albeit of a comparable style and scale and also backing on to water, is further west in the city (see folios 206 recto and verso, and 212 recto; D19248–D19249, D19260). The Reep canal runs in the foreground, with what is now Bisdomplein over the low stone bridge where the broad modern Wijdenaarbrug crosses. The cathedral’s tower and the ends of its transepts have since acquired prominent finials, while its east end, with radiating chapels, is now largely masked by the Gothic-Revival episcopal palace.
The gabled buildings displaying a coat of arms on the left do not survive. The stuccoed building on the right, which still overlooks the canal on that side, seems to be shown looking up from a closer viewpoint, perhaps along the other side of the Reep; now part of Ghent University, it is somewhat laterally compressed to focus on the rounded gable motif over the entrance. Above is a separate, more detailed study of the cathedral’s tower. A detailed 1831 painting, De Sint-Baafskathedraal en de Reep in Gent, by the local artist Pieter-Frans (or Pierre-François) De Noter (Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ghent), shows the overall prospect from the same viewpoint. The medieval Geeraard de Duilvelsteen (‘Castle of Gerald the Devil’) stands just along the Reep to the left, but it does not appear to have attracted Turner’s interest.
It is unclear whether the boat towards the bottom right is shown directly beside the bridge as part of the main scene. It is a fishing boat with a crane-like boom supporting the frame of a lever or lift net; see under folio 80 verso (D18998) for others of the type in this sketchbook. There is a south-westwards view towards the cathedral from along the canal to the right on folio 204 verso opposite (D19245), and it is seen from the west on folio 203 verso (D19243). For other views of Ghent in this sketchbook and elsewhere, see under folio 201 verso (D19239).

Matthew Imms
September 2020

1
Finberg 1909, II, p.658.

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The East End of Ghent Cathedral and Nearby Buildings, from the Reep Canal; Studies of Boats 1825 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, September 2020, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, March 2023, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-east-end-of-ghent-cathedral-and-nearby-buildings-from-r1202598, accessed 13 May 2025.