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 A Sailing Boat between Jetties on the IJ Riverfront at Amsterdam; Gables and a Turret ?near the Haringpakkerstoren 1825

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘A Sailing Boat between Jetties on the IJ Riverfront at Amsterdam; Gables and a Turret ?near the Haringpakkerstoren’ 1825
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 111 Recto:
A Sailing Boat between Jetties on the IJ Riverfront at Amsterdam; Gables and a Turret ?near the Haringpakkerstoren 1825
D19058
Turner Bequest CCXIV 111
Pencil on white wove paper, 95 x 155 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘W[?h...]’ towards top right, over buildings
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘11’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCXIV – 111’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned horizontally, the main view shows a sailing boat manoeuvring between jetties, with moored boats on the left another sail or two in the distance. The setting, as on adjacent pages, is presumably Amsterdam’s IJ riverfront.
The other way up towards the gutter is a slight study of an octagonal tower or turret above a row of gables, as apparently also shown in a detailed sketch on folio 122 recto (D19080). The tower seems to be the one shown in relation to the lost Haringpakkerstoren (‘herring packer’s tower’) in the contemporary Holland, Meuse and Cologne sketchbook (Tate D19497; Turner Bequest CCXV 59a); the Haringpakkerstoren stood at the corner of the Singel canal and what is now Prins Hendrikkade, as seen on folios 109 verso and 110 recto (D19055–D19056),.
The riverfront has since been extensively developed, with the Westerdok and Oosterdok, the Victorian railway station and tower blocks, making some of Turner’s sightlines difficult to confirm. See under folio 81 recto (D18999) for other views in and around the city in this book and elsewhere, and the sketchbook’s Introduction for discussion of its many shipping studies.

Matthew Imms
September 2020

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘A Sailing Boat between Jetties on the IJ Riverfront at Amsterdam; Gables and a Turret ?near the Haringpakkerstoren 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-a-sailing-boat-between-jetties-on-the-ij-riverfront-at-r1202410, accessed 13 June 2025.