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 Vleehuisbrug on the River Leie, Ghent, from the Groentenmarkt, with the Gatehouse of the Gravensteen beyond Houses along the Kleine Vismarkt; the Gravensteen from the Sint Veerleplein 1825

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Vleehuisbrug on the River Leie, Ghent, from the Groentenmarkt, with the Gatehouse of the Gravensteen beyond Houses along the Kleine Vismarkt; the Gravensteen from the Sint Veerleplein’ 1825
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 202 Recto:
The Vleehuisbrug on the River Leie, Ghent, from the Groentenmarkt, with the Gatehouse of the Gravensteen beyond Houses along the Kleine Vismarkt; the Gravensteen from the Sint Veerleplein 1825
D19240
Turner Bequest CCXIV 202
Pencil on white wove paper, 155 x 95 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Fish mark’ towards top right, and ‘Apple stall’ right of centre, both descending vertically
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘2’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCXIV – 202’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
Of these two Ghent subjects, the one drawn with the page inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation continues across folio 201 verso opposite (D19239), where the view is over the Vleehuisbrug on the River Leie, north-north-west towards the Gravensteen fortress. The buildings nearest the gutter on the present page are across the river, while the gable under which an ‘Apple stall’ is noted is on the near side, at the corner of the Groentenmarkt (vegetable market), which Turner labelled both ‘Marche aux Légumes’ and ‘Groensel Markt’ on the opposite page.
The recessed shrine below the gable (housing figures of the Madonna and Child) and the flanking triangular windows remain in place. It appears that the same gable is shown again to the left, looking south-west along the north side of the square. The street crossing the bridge is the Kleine Vismarkt, as Turner’s other inscription here, ‘Fish mark’, notes. The scene is shown, complete with stalls below the shrine, in a precise 1840s drawing by William Callow, Vegetable Market, Ghent (Tate A00149).
The other view, drawn horizontally, is from the east side of the Sint Veerleplein (sometimes ‘Place Ste-Pharaïlde’, reflecting the respective Dutch and French forms of the local patron saint’s name), not far beyond the Vleehuisbrug, Gabled houses on the west side are seen to the left, with the medieval Gravensteen fortress, since heavily restored and stripped of adjacent buildings, to the north-west on the right. Ghent, an 1837 engraving after Turner’s British contemporary Clarkson Stanfield, is from a similar viewpoint. The square is shown again in more detail on the verso (D19241), which Turner labelled with its French name, presumably from adjacent signage. For other views of the city here and elsewhere, see under D19239 opposite.

Matthew Imms and Quirine van der Meer Mohr
September 2020

How to cite

Matthew Imms and Quirine van der Meer Mohr, ‘The Vleehuisbrug on the River Leie, Ghent, from the Groentenmarkt, with the Gatehouse of the Gravensteen beyond Houses along the Kleine Vismarkt; the Gravensteen from the Sint Veerleplein 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-vleehuisbrug-on-the-river-leie-ghent-from-the-r1202592, accessed 07 June 2025.