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

ISBN 978-1-84976-386-8
J.M.W. Turner > 1819-29 Italy and after > European River and Lowland Scenes > Artwork

Joseph Mallord William Turner Boats by a Quayside with a Horse-Drawn Carriage, ?on the River Meuse c.1830

Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘Boats by a Quayside with a Horse-Drawn Carriage, ?on the River Meuse’ c.1830
Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
Boats by a Quayside with a Horse-Drawn Carriage, ?on the River Meuse c.1830
D24722
Turner Bequest CCLIX 157
Gouache and watercolour on blue wove paper, 142 x 191 mm
Blind-stamped with Turner Bequest monogram bottom right
Stamped in black ‘CCLIX 157’ bottom right
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
In the foreground of this colourful riverside scene, boats are shown carrying people and cargo, either approaching or making their way from the town’s wharf. On the quayside is a horse-drawn carriage, possibly a mail coach. The town itself stands at the bottom of a very steep, rocky hillside. At the top of the hill is the outline of a defensive structure with high walls and a tower.
Finberg’s 1909 Inventory included this in a group of sketches ‘mostly connected with the “French Rivers” series’, although ‘some Belgian subjects have also been included, and there may possibly be some Rhine and even English subjects among them’;1 in the absence of later suggestions, the date used is derived from Finberg.
For the grouping and general dating of these works, see the section Introduction.
1
Finberg 1909, II, p.789.
Verso:
Blank except for inscriptions. Traces of white strips of paper along the edges of the sheet indicate an earlier mount. Inscribed in pencil ‘D24722’ bottom centre. Inscribed in pencil ‘CCLIX 157’ left of centre towards the bottom.

Ben Pollitt
August 2019

How to cite

Ben Pollitt, ‘Boats by a Quayside with a Horse-Drawn Carriage, ?on the River Meuse c.1830 by Joseph Mallord William Turner’, catalogue entry, August 2019, in David Blayney Brown (ed.), J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours, Tate Research Publication, March 2023, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/jmw-turner/joseph-mallord-william-turner-boats-by-a-quayside-with-a-horse-drawn-carriage-on-the-river-r1202164, accessed 09 May 2024.