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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1830-35 Annual tourist > Northern Germany, the Elbe and Prague ... > Rotterdam Sketchbook > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Kolk, Rotterdam 1835

Image 1 of 2
Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Kolk, Rotterdam’ 1835
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Folio 1 Verso:
The Kolk, Rotterdam 1835
D32444
Turner Bequest CCCXXI 1
Pencil on off-white laid paper, 95 x 153 mm
 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
The art historian Fred Bachrach has identified this sketch as a view of the Kolk, a small harbour near the centre of Rotterdam.1 Moored boats huddle close the quayside, and buildings line both sides of the harbour, including the Korenbeurs (the Corn Exchange) at right. At centre the Grote Markt (main market hall) can be seen with a statue of Erasmus – Rotterdam’s most famous native – below it. Rendered in outline at top right is the tower of St Lawrence’s Church.
1
Bachrach [1974], p.84 pl.75.
Recto:
Inscribed in red ink by Ruskin ‘1’ and stamped in black ‘CCCXXI–1’, bottom right.

Alice Rylance-Watson
April 2016

How to cite

Alice Rylance-Watson, ‘The Kolk, Rotterdam 1835 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, April 2016, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, August 2017, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-the-kolk-rotterdam-r1187267, accessed 20 April 2024.