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

Here Turner records a river scene with loose and swift handling. The sketch may have been taken as the artist was leaving Bruges for Ostend, owing to the similarities between the architecture depicted in Tate D19890; Turner Bequest CCXVI 169a and the buildings shown here in the distance. A boatman can be seen in the foreground, guiding his vessel through the waters by means of a wooden paddle. He may be the same boatman as is depicted in Tate D19891; Turner Bequest CCXVI 170.