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 Boats Moored near a Bridge in the Sint-Jansvliet Canal, Antwerp, with the Cathedral in the Distance; Gabled Waterfront Buildings and Boats; the Cathedral and Churches from the Harbour 1825

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Boats Moored near a Bridge in the Sint-Jansvliet Canal, Antwerp, with the Cathedral in the Distance; Gabled Waterfront Buildings and Boats; the Cathedral and Churches from the Harbour’ 1825
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 198 Recto:
Boats Moored near a Bridge in the Sint-Jansvliet Canal, Antwerp, with the Cathedral in the Distance; Gabled Waterfront Buildings and Boats; the Cathedral and Churches from the Harbour 1825
D19232
Turner Bequest CCXIV 198
Pencil on white wove paper, 95 x 155 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘wood’ and ‘G[...?d] B[?rown]’ towards bottom left, ascending vertically, and ‘[?Shad]’ towards bottom right
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘98’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCXIV – 198’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The page was turned both ways for various views of Antwerp. The two horizontal subjects both appear to show the short Sint-Jansvliet Canal, shown on French-language maps of the time as the Canal St-Jean, an inlet off the River Scheldt not far south-west of the cathedral. An elevating ophaalbrug-type bridge stands at its entrance towards the left of the upper view, while the cathedral is shown beyond the gables towards the right, with its soaring spire continued upwards across folio 197 verso opposite (D19231), where a finial and the onion dome over the crossing lantern are also shown.
Below, the view is continued to the right, west-south-west beyond cursorily indicated boats to the inner end of the harbour basin, with what seems to be a note of ‘Shad’ likely indicating shadow. The gabled house on the left, with a shaded archway below to its left, appear to be those shown in a Victorian photograph of the scene.1 The waterway has since been filled in and its buildings lost, but it remains known as the Sint-Jansvliet, where two short parallel streets lead to a small square. The bridge is shown, labelled ‘St Jean’, in a view from the river on folio 191 recto (D19218).
To the left, at right-angles and inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, is a view from north of the city, with the tower of the Sint-Jacobskerk (St James’s) at the left, the cathedral and the Sint-Pauluskerk (St Paul’s). A profile of the upper stages of its Baroque spire is to its right; compare in particular folio 195 verso (D19227). Next, presumably as part of the same overall view, the broad, low building with a cupola appears to be the Oostershuis warehouse of the Hanseatic League, shown in an 1825 lithograph after Auguste de Peellaert, Maison Anséatique d’Anvers, and on maps of the time where the Museum aan de Stroom stands today within the harbour; see also the river view on folio 189 recto (D19214) and folio 199 recto (D19234).
The viewpoint would have been north of the original harbour basins, where there have been many changes. For other views of Antwerp here and elsewhere, see under folio 188 recto (D19212).

Matthew Imms and Quirine van der Meer Mohr
September 2020

1
See Jean Marie Michiels, ‘Heraanleg Sint-Jansvliet’, Antwerpen verkenner, accessed 12 August 2020, https://jemami.blogspot.com/2018/04/heraanleg-sint-jansvliet.html.

How to cite

Matthew Imms and Quirine van der Meer Mohr, ‘Boats Moored near a Bridge in the Sint-Jansvliet Canal, Antwerp, with the Cathedral in the Distance; Gabled Waterfront Buildings and Boats; the Cathedral and Churches from the Harbour 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-boats-moored-near-a-bridge-in-the-sint-jansvliet-canal-r1202584, accessed 28 May 2025.