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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Southern Germany, Austria and Venice ... > Rotterdam and Rhine sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner A ?Dutch Riverside Town with Spires and Gables; Architectural Details 1833

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A ?Dutch Riverside Town with Spires and Gables; Architectural Details’ 1833
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 36 Verso:
A ?Dutch Riverside Town with Spires and Gables; Architectural Details 1833
D32611
Turner Bequest CCCXXII 37a
Pencil on white laid paper, 105 x 170 mm
Partial watermark: base of unicorn motif
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘[?Road]’ centre left and ‘[?A...dre]’ top right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned horizontally, the drawing shows a river view (indicated by the cluster of sails towards the left), presumably in Holland, with a town in the right distance; the scene was observed early or late in the day, with the disk of the sun low on the left. The details of the spire and gable towards the top right appear to clarify similar features along the skyline, but the brief note above them, whether architectural or indicating a place name, is resistant to interpretation.
This sketchbook covers Turner’s homeward route from Augsburg north-westwards to Rotterdam (see under folios 1 verso and 14 recto respectively; D32543, D32568; CCCXXII 2a, 15). As set out in the Introduction, although his general itinerary is clear from many identified subjects as he travelled down the River Rhine and its Dutch distributaries, they were are not drawn in a single sequence, making the less distinctive landscapes, towns and river scenes between them difficult to place.
Technical notes:
There is a central dark smudge towards the gutter at the top, apparently offset from the heavily shaded view on folio 37 recto opposite (D32612; CCCXXII 38).

Matthew Imms and Quirine van der Meer Mohr
November 2019

How to cite

Matthew Imms and Quirine van der Meer Mohr, ‘A ?Dutch Riverside Town with Spires and Gables; Architectural Details 1833 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, November 2019, 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-a-dutch-riverside-town-with-spires-and-gables-architectural-r1204076, accessed 04 July 2025.