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 Waterfront Structures at Antwerp, with Men near a Large Wheeled Mechanism 1825

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Waterfront Structures at Antwerp, with Men near a Large Wheeled Mechanism’ 1825
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 199 Recto:
Waterfront Structures at Antwerp, with Men near a Large Wheeled Mechanism 1825
D19234
Turner Bequest CCXIV 199
Pencil on white wove paper, 95 x 155 mm
Inscribed by John Ruskin in red ink ‘99’ top right, ascending vertically
Stamped in black ‘CCXIV – 199’ top right, ascending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The somewhat jumbled, fragmentary subjects here and on folio 198 verso opposite (D19233) defy straightforward analysis. Their setting is presumably Antwerp, as in clearer views on adjacent pages, but their precise context is difficult to establish. They may show features around the original harbour basin off the River Scheldt within the defences around the north end of the city centre, along the section of the riverfront south-west of the cathedral shown on maps of the time as housing the Arsenal, or a combination of both.
Turner visited both districts: folio 198 recto (D19232) combines subjects from around the harbour and an inlet near the Arsenal, while folio 197 verso (D19231) seems to show the bastions near the river north of the harbour. Various batteries and other installations are marked around both areas, and a substantial citadel guarded the city just upriver, but nothing survives of them. Turner’s apparent haste in noting some aspects of these scenes may have reflected anxiety in case of military or official displeasure.
The largest sketch was drawn with the page turned horizontally, and possibly shows a single scene. Towards the left foreground, several men are seen from the back near a substantial wheeled mechanism. This may be part of a harbour crane, or a sluice or lock, and it is shown again twice on the opposite page among studies which are continued a little way over onto this one, at the bottom right. The object nearby may be the wheeled carriage or cradle of a cannon, although no barrel is evident.
The building seen in elevation at the top left is possibly the Oostershuis warehouse of the Hanseatic League, shown there in an 1825 lithograph after Auguste de Peellaert, Maison Anséatique d’Anvers, and on maps of the time between the two harbour basins where the Museum aan de Stroom stands today; see also folios 189 recto and 198 recto (D19214, D19232). For other views of Antwerp here and elsewhere, see under folio 188 recto (D19212), and see the sketchbook’s Introduction for discussion of its many shipping and figure subjects, and studies of individuals, their costume and headgear.
Technical notes:
The outer half of the page is notably stained, likely as a result of the 1928 Tate Gallery flood.

Matthew Imms
September 2020

How to cite

Matthew Imms, ‘Waterfront Structures at Antwerp, with Men near a Large Wheeled Mechanism 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-waterfront-structures-at-antwerp-with-men-near-a-large-r1202586, accessed 05 April 2026.