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 Views of Antwerp from the River Scheldt near the Harbour, with a Warship Moored off the Cathedral and Het Steen, and the Sint-Jacobskerk Beyond 1825

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Views of Antwerp from the River Scheldt near the Harbour, with a Warship Moored off the Cathedral and Het Steen, and the Sint-Jacobskerk Beyond’ 1825
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 190 Recto:
Views of Antwerp from the River Scheldt near the Harbour, with a Warship Moored off the Cathedral and Het Steen, and the Sint-Jacobskerk Beyond 1825
D19216
Turner Bequest CCXIV 190
Pencil on white wove paper, 155 x 95 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘[...]’ bottom left
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘90’ top left, upside down
Stamped in black ‘CCXIV – 190’ top left, upside down
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page inverted relative to the sketchbook’s foliation, there are five related views, of which the last continues across folio 189 verso opposite (D19215). They are all from the River Scheldt off Antwerp looking eastwards to the city’s waterfront, and follow on from the similarly slight views across folios 188 verso–189 recto (D19213–D19214).
The first shows distant towers and gables beyond the masts of moored boats; these are possibly the lost churches seen on the verso and folios 191 recto and verso (D19217–D19219), south of the city centre. Otherwise rather inconsequential, this band is perhaps a continuation upriver to the right from the second, where the asymmetrical east towers of the Gothic cathedral are shown with the square tower of the Sint-Jacobskerk (St James’s) beyond.
The remaining two sketches are variants on this scene, the first focussing on a moored three-masted warship bedecked with bunting, and the second, on a larger scale, bringing in the turrets of Het Steen, the medieval riverside fortress near the cathedral, which is continued on D19125 opposite. There is a more detailed horizontal version of the overall scene on D19218. For other views of Antwerp on adjacent pages, see under folio 188 recto (D19212), a related view, and see the sketchbook’s Introduction for discussion of its many shipping studies.

Matthew Imms
September 2020

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Views of Antwerp from the River Scheldt near the Harbour, with a Warship Moored off the Cathedral and Het Steen, and the Sint-Jacobskerk Beyond 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-views-of-antwerp-from-the-river-scheldt-near-the-harbour-r1202568, accessed 02 August 2025.