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

This is a very slight jotting of a few sailing vessels with tall masts. In the background, a windmill is suggested with the briefest of line. The sketch is probably related to a view of a small harbour shown on Tate D18473; Turner Bequest CCX 91, a leaf which was rebound into the present sketchbook after having been bound originally in the Brighton and Arundel book of around 1824. Given that Tate D18473–D18474; Turner Bequest CCX 91–91a are likely prospects of Ghent, the boats depicted here may also have been recorded by Turner at the same Flemish city. Ghent is situated at the confluence of the Rivers Sheldt and Leie, and its plethora of inland waterways were plied in Turner’s time, as indeed they are now, by a variety of craft from small dinghies and sailing boats to river barges.