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

Finberg later annotated his 1909 Inventory entry (‘Canal scene – “Vingel”; also church tower’): ‘Wester Kerk | Amsterdam’ and ‘Singel. do.’.1 The last word indicates ‘ditto’, following on from Finberg’s MS note regarding the recto (D19039) including the initials ‘J.P.H.’, acknowledging the etcher and collector John Postle Heseltine (1843–1929), whose occasional suggestions are marked in this way.

Both drawings are inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation. The upper view shows barges on the ‘Singel’ canal in Amsterdam, as Turner notes, with a tower in the distance; the specific viewpoint and thus the identification of the tower are uncertain. It is possibly the Munttoren (see below), or the lost Jan Roodenpoortstoren (see the study on folio 103 recto; D19043); the scene extends a little to the left across folio 102 recto opposite (D19041).

Finberg’s ‘Wester Kerk’ annotation presumably applies to the lower subject, but is incorrect. There is a detailed study of the Westerkerk’s tower, known as the ‘Westertoren’, also on D19043, but here the subject is the Munttoren (‘mint tower’), with its Baroque upper stages, overlooking the Muntplein square where the River Amstel and the Singel meet, probably looking north-west from along the Singel’s quay. Most buildings now in the vicinity are later, and a flower market runs along this section. The Baroque tower features an open globe-like finial and an extensive carillon of bells indicated by a few dots in the belfry above the blank clock faces. Turner noted the ‘4 G[olden] Bal[l]s’ visible from this side, of the eight finials running around the top of the belfry section. The tower is also shown in a wider context on folio 99 verso (D19036), and the present sketch is also continued a little way onto the opposite page, where there is a nearby scene along the canal to the west.

The miscellaneous objects below were perhaps at a market along the quay; they seem to include small chairs and a pram-like cart. 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 various studies of kitchenware and other domestic items.