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

The drawing was made with the page turned horizontally. Most of the topographical sketches between folios 162 verso and 168 verso (D19161–D19173), were made down the River Meuse along the southern end of central Liège, and this boat (or boats) was likely observed at this stage. For other views of Liège in this sketchbook and elsewhere, see under folio 155 verso (D19147).

It is unclear whether the frameworks and canopies are on the boat(s) or the bank; if the former, compare the more substantial traditional bateau-lavoir barges on the Seine in Paris. According to Turner’s careful inscription, the figures within, likely all women, are engaged in rinsing dyed wool in a loosely woven basket or frame. The Low Countries have been renowned for woollen textile production since medieval times.1 In a discussion of ‘Turner and the Industrial Scene’, the Marxist writer Jack Lindsay noted this page among ‘examples of his eye for labour process from the sketchbooks’;2 see this sketchbook’s Introduction for discussion of its many shipping and figure subjects, and studies of individuals, their costume and headgear.