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

With the page turned horizontally, the main subject shows moored sailing boats and a steamer with smoke issuing from its tall funnel, on the River Scheldt in the vicinity of Antwerp’s harbour, with the Sint-Pauluskerk (St Paul’s) upriver to the south; see under folio 195 verso opposite (D19227) and compare folio 197 recto (D19230). This or another steamer may also be seen on the verso (D19229). The less distinctive riverfront scene above may have been to the left, or on the west bank opposite. The significance of the numbers marked there is obscure, although ‘White House’ is a characteristic note. At right-angles down the left-hand edge, inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, is a study of a shadowy landscape with what is likely a sunset sky reflected in water. Assuming it is from the same occasion or at least from this phase of the tour, it is likely another Scheldt view.

Seeing the ‘White House’ may have put Turner in mind of the short-lived Thomas Girtin (1775–1802), his early friend, rival and sometime collaborator (see Andrew Wilton’s ‘Monro School c.1794–8’ section in the present catalogue). The artist had been noted for his evocative treatment of light, suggested here by the note ‘Girtin effect’, most famously in the twilit 1800 watercolour of The White House at Chelsea (Tate N04728), which Turner sometimes mentioned or noted specifically in relation to his own later drawings.1 Elsewhere in this sketchbook his annotations show that what he was seeing recalled the landscapes of the earlier Dutch painter Aelbert Cuyp (1620–1691); see under folio 60 verso (D18958).

For other views of Antwerp here and elsewhere, see under folio 188 recto (D19212), and see the sketchbook’s Introduction for discussion of its many shipping studies.