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

This is a carefully executed study of the Gothic west tower of St Lawrence’s Church (the Sint-Laurenskerk), Rotterdam, showing its upper two stages. Turner’s orientation here is uncertain, as each side is similar, with a clock below a coat of arms in a rounded pediment above a central window, flanked by lancet windows behind a tracery balustrade. The stage below is the belfry, with the central arched opening flanked by blank lancets. The similarly proportioned stage below, not shown, stands clear of the pitched roofs of the side aisles.

As was his custom with complex architecture, Turner only recorded sufficient elements of the symmetrical arrangement as would embody the whole for his own reference. The viewpoint may have been to the south-east, as the tower is seen in wider views from that direction on the verso (D18923). The tower is often seen as a blank outline in the background of Turner’s views around the city’s waterways. Other details of the building are studied in isolation on folio 43 recto (D18924). The artist studied the prominent tower on other visits, in the 1817 Dort sketchbook (Tate D13026; Turner Bequest CLXII 16a), the 1833 Rotterdam and Rhine book (D32620; CCCXXII 42), and 1835’s Rotterdam book (D32483; CCCXXI 20a).

Although the layout of the city’s central streets and harbours has been broadly preserved, very few buildings survived destruction in May 1940, notably St Lawrence’s (albeit itself much-restored); see under folio 35 recto (D18908) for other views in and around the city in this book and elsewhere.

Technical notes:

Slight staining or foxing has affected both side of the leaf.