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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Hague from the Trekvliet, with a Cabbage Boat; Tower of the Great Church, St James 1817

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Hague from the Trekvliet, with a Cabbage Boat; Tower of the Great Church, St James’ 1817
Folio 39 Recto:
The Hague from the Trekvliet, with a Cabbage Boat; Tower of the Great Church, St James 1817
D13067
Turner Bequest CLXII 39
Pencil on ‘blue’ laid writing paper, 156 x 93 mm
Inscribed by Turner in pencil ‘Cabbage boat | with boards placed at top for to pole from’ bottom centre, and ‘Saint Jacobus’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CLXII – 39’ bottom left, descending vertically
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With the page turned horizontally, this sketch of The Hague from the Trekvliet canal (see folio 37 recto; D13063) is accompanied by a separate detail of the top of the tower of the Grote Kerk (the Jacobuskerk) with its small belfry. The church is noted in Turner’s inscription, hitherto considered illegible. Below the main sketch, Turner draws attention to the ‘cabbage boat’ with boards mounted across its hull on which a man stands to pole it along the canal.

Quirine van der Meer Mohr
December 2013

Revised by David Blayney Brown
September 2025

How to cite

Quirine van der Meer Mohr, ‘The Hague from the Trekvliet, with a Cabbage Boat; Tower of the Great Church, St James 1817’, catalogue entry, December 2013, revised by David Blayney Brown, September 2025, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, June 2026, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/the-hague-from-the-trekvliet-with-a-cabbage-boat-tower-of-the-great-church-st-james-r1212442, accessed 31 July 2026.