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 Studies of Boats under Sail off the Huis te Merwede, near Dordrecht; Carriages; Shipping, with the Grote Kerk and Groothoofdspoort at Dordrecht in the Distance 1825

Image 1 of 2
  • Enhanced image
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Studies of Boats under Sail off the Huis te Merwede, near Dordrecht; Carriages; Shipping, with the Grote Kerk and Groothoofdspoort at Dordrecht in the Distance’ 1825
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 49 Recto:
Studies of Boats under Sail off the Huis te Merwede, near Dordrecht; Carriages; Shipping, with the Grote Kerk and Groothoofdspoort at Dordrecht in the Distance 1825
D18935
Turner Bequest CCXIV 49
Pencil on white wove paper, 155 x 95 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘[?Poorh...]’ top left, ‘Mur[?w...]t | Besbos’ top right, and ‘Red V | yell V’ towards bottom right, beside carriage
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘49’ bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCXIV – 49’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
There are five bands of sketches running down the page. The first three show boats under sail near Dordrecht; the inscriptions at the top are somewhat unclear, although ‘Besbos’ is presumably a phonetic attempt at ‘Biesbosch’, a wetland area (now a national park) south of the Beneden Merwede river east of the city; the word over the distant spire may be ‘Poorhouse’ or a Dutch equivalent, and that at the top right appears cognate with the name of the river. See this sketchbook’s Introduction for discussion of its many shipping studies.
The asymmetrical tower repeatedly seen on the skyline and in a separate detail is the ruined Huis te Merwede (see also folios 50 recto, 60 verso and 61 recto; D18937, D18958–D18959), a small castle on the south bank, which still stands among trees along a largely industrialised reach. Only one wall remains, with a turret at the south corner and a smaller projection at the north, suggesting that Turner’s views showing the turret on the right are all eastwards upstream from near the city.
Next come studies of carriages (or aspects of the same vehicle) with notes of bright colours; the details suggest a traditional travellers’ caravan, although their immediate context is unclear among the river views. At the bottom is a drawing of moored vessels with Dordrecht in the distance, with the square tower of the Grote Kerk and the cupola of the Groothoofdspoort (see under folio 48 verso; D18934) to the west. See under folio 47 recto (D18931) for other views in and around the city in this book and elsewhere, many of which feature the church.

Matthew Imms and Quirine van der Meer Mohr
September 2020

How to cite

Matthew Imms and Quirine van der Meer Mohr, ‘Studies of Boats under Sail off the Huis te Merwede, near Dordrecht; Carriages; Shipping, with the Grote Kerk and Groothoofdspoort at Dordrecht in the Distance 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-studies-of-boats-under-sail-off-the-huis-te-merwede-near-r1202287, accessed 12 August 2025.