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

Turned horizontally, the page includes a slight view of Rotterdam’s Leuvehaven on the left, probably looking south-east from a similar viewpoint near the Leuvebrug to that used for the full-page view in the other direction on folio 90 verso opposite (D19018). The only feature studied in detail here is the spire of the Twee Leeuwen (‘two lions’) brewery, which is seen from the south in the foreground of folio 90 recto (D19017), and in similar detail on folios 76 verso and 77 recto (D18990–D18991). The rest of the page is taken up with a study of three barges moored side-by-side; the furthest is bedecked with a washing line and red and white laundry according the Turner’s colour notes. The boats are seen obliquely from above, and not on the same plane as the Leuvehaven view, although they were likely observed in the vicinity.

Although the layout of the city’s central streets and harbours has been broadly preserved, very few buildings, notably St Lawrence’s Church (the Sint-Laurenskerk), 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, and the sketchbook’s Introduction for discussion of its many shipping studies.