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 North End of the Leuvehaven, Rotterdam, with the Cupola of the Lutheran Church above the Turn to the Blaak, and the Tower of St Lawrence's Church and Spire of the Oude Stadhuis in the Distance 1825

Image 1 of 2
  • Enhanced image
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The North End of the Leuvehaven, Rotterdam, with the Cupola of the Lutheran Church above the Turn to the Blaak, and the Tower of St Lawrence's Church and Spire of the Oude Stadhuis in the Distance’ 1825
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 73 Recto:
The North End of the Leuvehaven, Rotterdam, with the Cupola of the Lutheran Church above the Turn to the Blaak, and the Tower of St Lawrence’s Church and Spire of the Oude Stadhuis in the Distance 1825
D18983
Turner Bequest CCXIV 73
Pencil on white wove paper, 95 x 155 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘73’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCXIV – 73’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned horizontally, the view is similar to those on adjacent pages (see below), albeit somewhat sketchier, looking north to the inner end of Rotterdam’s Leuvehaven,1 with the tower of St Lawrence’s Church (the Sint-Laurenskerk) in the distance towards the centre, with the slender spire of the nearby Oude Stadhuis (studied in detail on folio 43 verso; D18925) to its right. Returning to the middle distance, the elevating ophaalbrug-type Houtbrug is shown at the right turn into the Blaak, and the most detailed element is the clock-tower of the Lutheran Church towards the right.
A sailing boat is lightly outlined at the centre, with what may be mooring posts in the foreground. There is a slight continuation or nearby view at the top right. Compare various views from around this point on folios 37 recto and verso and 38 recto (D18912–D18914), and on folios 72 recto and verso and (from further back) on the verso of this leaf (D18981–D18982, D18984).
Although the layout of the city’s central streets and harbours has been broadly preserved, the north end of the Leuvehaven has since been filled in, along with the whole of the Blaak; the area is characterised by tower blocks near the Maritime Museum. Very few buildings (notably St Lawrence’s) survived destruction in May 1940, 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.

Matthew Imms and Quirine van der Meer Mohr
September 2020

1
Among a sequence identified in Finberg 1909, II, p.653, as simply ‘Views on river, Rotterdam’.

How to cite

Matthew Imms and Quirine van der Meer Mohr, ‘The North End of the Leuvehaven, Rotterdam, with the Cupola of the Lutheran Church above the Turn to the Blaak, and the Tower of St Lawrence’s Church and Spire of the Oude Stadhuis 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-north-end-of-the-leuvehaven-rotterdam-with-the-cupola-of-r1202335, accessed 05 August 2025.