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

The subject is not, as Finberg thought, Rotterdam1 (see under folio 35 recto; D18908), but Dordrecht. Turned horizontally, the page comprises various swiftly rendered sketches of Dordrecht, along the riverfront where the Beneden Merwede forks into its distributaries, the Noord and Oude Maas (Old Meuse), with the Grote Kerk featuring in most of them, to the south-west down the Oude Maas.

Turner’s inscription, which is similar to that relating to a more detailed drawing on the recto (D18949), annotates a bare outline sketch of the riverside ‘Hotel Belle Vue’, below the dome of the Groothoofdspoort (see under folio 48 verso; D18934) just to its west. The ‘Bellevue’ (sic) still stands, albeit much changed, on the Groothoofd quay at the entrance to the Wijnhaven. There is another view of the buildings and their wider setting on folio 57 recto opposite (D18951). Turner noted an establishment of the same name in Rotterdam, on folio 68 verso (D18974).

See under folio 47 recto (D18931) for other views in and around the city in this book and elsewhere, many of which feature the Grote Kerk.