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, Meuse and Cologne Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Amsterdam across the River IJ, with the Rijkswerf Shipyards and Oosterkerk, and the Spires and Domes of the City Beyond 1825

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Amsterdam across the River IJ, with the Rijkswerf Shipyards and Oosterkerk, and the Spires and Domes of the City Beyond’ 1825
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 61 Verso:
Amsterdam across the River IJ, with the Rijkswerf Shipyards and Oosterkerk, and the Spires and Domes of the City Beyond 1825
D19500
Turner Bequest CCXV 61a
Pencil on white wove paper, 113 x 189 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The page comprises a panorama of Amsterdam from across the River IJ, running south-east to north-west in four closely set bands. Along the top, the Oosterkerk is seen within the Rijkswerf shipyards in the eastern docks. The next strip begins with more boatsheds and the pedimented Admiralty arsenal (’s Lands Zeemagazijn), now the Dutch National Maritime Museum (the Scheepvaartmuseum). Compare Tate D19068 (Turner Bequest CCXIV 116) in the contemporary Holland sketchbook. To the right, the spires of the Zuiderkerk and Oude Kerk are seen towards the cupola of the Royal Palace. The third band is confined to the outer half of the page, continuing with the slender spire of the Nieuwe Kerk, the lost Jan Roodenpoortstoren, the dome of the Ronde Lutherse Kerk (‘round Lutheran church’) and the ‘Westertoren’ steeple of the Westerkerk. Lastly, windmills north-west of the city centre and the western reaches of the IJ are shown beyond a sailing boat.
Finberg bracketed this page with folio 62 recto opposite (D19501) as ‘Shipping on river. – “Newwendendam.”’1 However, the views there are independent, albeit similar; nevertheless, Turner’s note, signifying Nieuwendam, may indicate the setting for both pages. The village is now a suburb some way from the water on the northern shore of the IJ, behind a strip of reclaimed land, while the Amsterdam riverfront has since been extensively developed, with the Westerdok and Oosterdok, the Victorian railway station and tower blocks, making the precise viewpoint(s) doubly difficult to establish.
There are similar views on folios 62 verso, 63 verso, 64 verso–65 recto and 67 verso–68 recto (D19502, D19504, D19506–D19507, D19512–D19513), with various boats shown moored in the foreground or under way on the IJ, as well as various comparable prospects in the Holland book, including Tate D19071 (Turner Bequest CCXIV 117a), a more ‘pictorial’ rendering with cows on the near bank and notes of a sunset effect. For other views of Amsterdam, see under folio 59 verso (D19497).

Matthew Imms and Quirine van der Meer Mohr
September 2020

1
Finberg 1909, II, p.664.

How to cite

Matthew Imms and Quirine van der Meer Mohr, ‘Amsterdam across the River IJ, with the Rijkswerf Shipyards and Oosterkerk, and the Spires and Domes of the City Beyond 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-amsterdam-across-the-river-ij-with-the-rijkswerf-shipyards-r1202840, accessed 24 June 2025.