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 The Beurs and Houses along the Kolk, Rotterdam, from across the Draaibrug, with the Tower of St Lawrence's Church in the Distance 1825

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Beurs and Houses along the Kolk, Rotterdam, from across the Draaibrug, with the Tower of St Lawrence's Church in the Distance’ 1825
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 44 Recto:
The Beurs and Houses along the Kolk, Rotterdam, from across the Draaibrug, with the Tower of St Lawrence’s Church in the Distance 1825
D18926
Turner Bequest CCXIV 44
Pencil on white wove paper, 95 x 155 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘44’ bottom left, descending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCXIV – 44’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned horizontally, the view ranges south-west to north-west, across Rotterdam’s Draaibrug to the Baroque façade of the lost Beurs (stock exchange) on the left, with its shallow central dome and cupola; lightly indicated houses along the Westnieuwland side of the Kolk basin recede towards the distant tower of St Lawrence’s Church (the Sint-Laurenskerk). On the right are houses along the Rijstuin side; in the immediate foreground on the left, the oblique frontages are apparently along the Draaisteeg (seen head-on on folio 41 verso; D18921).
Part of the Beurs and the adjacent houses are shown in much more detail from a similar viewpoint on folio 70 recto (D18977), as are the church and Rijstuin on folios 69 verso and 68 verso respectively (D18976, D18974); the same overall prospect appears in the 1835 Rotterdam sketchbook (Tate D32448, D32450; Turner Bequest CCCXXI 3 [verso]–4) as well as a separate view corresponding to the left-hand half of this one (D32486; CCCXXI 22a).
Although the layout of the city’s central streets and harbours has been broadly preserved, very few buildings (notably St Lawrence’s) survived destruction in May 1940, the Kolk has been filled in, and identification is based largely on earlier visual documentation; see under folio 35 recto (D18908) for other views in and around the city in this book and elsewhere.
Verso:
Blank; there is some light brown staining around the edges.

Matthew Imms
September 2020

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘The Beurs and Houses along the Kolk, Rotterdam, from across the Draaibrug, with the Tower of St Lawrence’s Church 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-the-beurs-and-houses-along-the-kolk-rotterdam-from-across-r1202278, accessed 15 May 2025.