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 IJ Riverfront at Amsterdam, with the Haringpakkerstoren; the Jetty and Bridge Leading to the Nieuwe Stadsherberg 1825

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The IJ Riverfront at Amsterdam, with the Haringpakkerstoren; the Jetty and Bridge Leading to the Nieuwe Stadsherberg’ 1825
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 110 Recto:
The IJ Riverfront at Amsterdam, with the Haringpakkerstoren; the Jetty and Bridge Leading to the Nieuwe Stadsherberg 1825
D19056
Turner Bequest CCXIV 110
Pencil on white wove paper, 95 x 155 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘G H ww’ top right, over buildings
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘10’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCXIV – 110’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned horizontally, the main view shows Amsterdam’s IJ riverfront running north-westwards, with the lost Haringpakkerstoren (‘herring packer’s tower’) at the centre. See under folio 97 recto (D19031) for the history of the tower, which stood at the corner of the Singel canal and what is now Prins Hendrikkade, beside the IJ; its cupola is seen above other buildings on folio 109 verso opposite (D19055). There are loose indications of moored boats along the quay in the foreground; beyond to the right are the western docks towards the Realeneiland and its neighbours.
The details at the top right appear to continue from the jetty in the right foreground of the main view, with an elevating ophaalbrug-type bridge leading to the seventeenth-century Nieuwe Stadsherberg (‘new city inn’), shown in engravings and on maps of the time at about the point where the Westelijke Toegangsbrug leads to the western end of the Victorian railway station.1 There is another two-part view of the tower and inn from the same side on folio 120 verso (D19077), and a more detailed variant in the contemporary Holland, Meuse and Cologne sketchbook (Tate D19495, D19497; Turner Bequest CCXV 58a, 59a).
The riverfront has since been extensively developed, with the Westerdok and Oosterdok, the station and tower blocks. See under folio 81 recto (D18999) for other views in and around the city in this book and elsewhere.

Matthew Imms and Quirine van der Meer Mohr
September 2020

1
See ‘Nieuwe Stadsherberg’, Stadsarchief Amsterdam, accessed 23 August 2020, https://www.amsterdam.nl/stadsarchief/stukken/verdwenen-amsterdam/nieuwe-stadsherberg/.

How to cite

Matthew Imms and Quirine van der Meer Mohr, ‘The IJ Riverfront at Amsterdam, with the Haringpakkerstoren; the Jetty and Bridge Leading to the Nieuwe Stadsherberg 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-ij-riverfront-at-amsterdam-with-the-haringpakkerstoren-r1202408, accessed 21 July 2025.