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

The subject is not, as Finberg thought, Rotterdam1 (see under folio 35 recto; D18908), but Dordrecht. With the page turned horizontally, the main drawing depicts the three-storey ‘Hotel Belle Vue’, as Turner noted it on folios 56 recto and its verso opposite (D18949–D18950). The Bellevue (sic) still stands, albeit with later frontages, on the Groothoofd quay west of the entrance to the Wijnhaven, facing north over the point where the Beneden Merwede river forks into its distributaries, the Noord and Oude Maas (Old Meuse), with the domed Groothoofdspoort (see under folio 48 verso; D18934) immediately to the west again.

The crabbed inscription immediately above eludes a clear reading, but is perhaps noted from commercial signage. At the top right, the loose outline is likely a continuation to the right, towards the tower of the Grote Kerk down the Oude Maas to the south-west. The cluster of figures in the foreground are probably passengers in a ferry boat, although the craft itself is barely indicated; compare those in the foreground of D18949, where there is a closer view of the hotel from a similar angle. The building is also lightly indicated among the river views on D18950 opposite. See this sketchbook’s Introduction for discussion of its many figure scenes, and studies of individuals, their costume and headgear.

On the right, with the page turned vertically, are two tightly packed sketches of riverbanks with arrays of windmills. The upper one possibly includes outlines of the hotel and Groothoofdspoort on the right, making it a view eastwards along the Beneden Merwede, where no windmills remain. See under folio 47 recto (D18931) for other views in and around the city in this book and elsewhere.