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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8

Joseph Mallord William Turner Boats, with Houses Beyond ?at Bruges 1824

Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 175 Recto:
Boats, with Houses Beyond ?at Bruges 1824
D19889
Turner Bequest CCXVI 169
Pencil on white wove paper, 78 x 118 mm
Inscribed in pencil by Turner ‘Black Yellow Keys’ bottom right
Inscribed in blue ink by Ruskin ‘169’ top right
Stamped in black ‘CCXVI–169’ bottom right
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
With agile handling, Turner records a scene on a canal, possibly at Bruges. Boats and barges are shown navigating the waterway or mooring at quayside. A parade of buildings can be seen in the distance. The primary focus of Turner’s attentions is a barge, which he has studied in detail. The vessel is similar to one recorded on Tate D19870; Turner Bequest CCXVI 158), and bears a carved wooden figurehead in the shape of a lion. The animal holds an escutcheon upon which an heraldic design with three keys is painted. Turner has drawn a detail of this coat of arms at bottom right, annotating it with the inscription ‘Black Yellow Keys’. These are the colours of the flag of Flanders, which appear in the form of a black lion rampant on a yellow or golden field. The coat of arms, then, most likely signifies that the barge was of Flemish origin, given the inclusion of the region’s colours and the lion figurehead.

Alice Rylance-Watson
June 2014

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘Boats, with Houses Beyond ?at Bruges 1824 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, June 2014, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, April 2015, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-boats-with-houses-beyond-at-bruges-r1174684, accessed 19 September 2024.