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 Bridges and Houses in Utrecht, with the Tower of the Cathedral (Domtoren) in the Distance; Details of the Haringpakkerstoren, Amsterdam 1825

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Bridges and Houses in Utrecht, with the Tower of the Cathedral (Domtoren) in the Distance; Details of the Haringpakkerstoren, Amsterdam’ 1825
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 130 Verso:
Bridges and Houses in Utrecht, with the Tower of the Cathedral (Domtoren) in the Distance; Details of the Haringpakkerstoren, Amsterdam 1825
D19097
Turner Bequest CCXIV 130a
Pencil on white wove paper, 95 x 155 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘W’ and ‘yellow B | Red l | W’ bottom centre, ascending vertically around studies of cupola
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned horizontally, bridges and houses in Utrecht1 are shown in varying detail. The setting is likely the city’s central Oudegracht canal, with the soaring tower of the cathedral (the Domtoren) in the distance, although the viewpoint remains unconfirmed. Compare the city centre view in the painting Utrecht, exhibited in 1829 by Turner’s friend George Jones (Tate N00392). Clearer views on adjacent pages show the tower from Utrecht’s encircling Stadsbuitengracht moat; see under folio 128 verso (D19093).
At the bottom right, at right-angles and inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, annotated details of the lost Haringpakkerstoren (‘herring packers’ tower’) in Amsterdam appear to be shown, somewhat out of sequence given that the last of the sketchbook’s Amsterdam views may be on folio 123 recto (D19082); for its many others, see under folio 81 recto (D18999) and for the tower itself, under folio 97 recto (D19031).

Matthew Imms and Quirine van der Meer Mohr
September 2020

1
As tentatively suggested in Finberg 1909, II, p.655.

How to cite

Matthew Imms and Quirine van der Meer Mohr, ‘Bridges and Houses in Utrecht, with the Tower of the Cathedral (Domtoren) in the Distance; Details of the Haringpakkerstoren, Amsterdam 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-bridges-and-houses-in-utrecht-with-the-tower-of-the-r1202449, accessed 06 May 2025.