Like Harbor of Dieppe, Turner’s other monumental port painting in the Frick’s collection, this canvas is one of three large works the artist devoted to northern European port cities in the 1820s. He exhibited this painting of Cologne, on the Rhine, in western Germany, in 1826. Cologne had long been a major commercial, educational, and religious center, and it was still largely medieval in appearance when Turner visited. He painted this canvas in his London studio from sketches made on-site.
Turner represents the town with its defensive towers, walls, and a customs house leading to the distant tower and spire of the Great St. Martin church. More prominent in the composition is the incoming boat, heaving with passengers eager to disembark. Such packet-boats were regularly scheduled to carry mail, cargo, and people from one town to another. Despite the activity on board, a sense of timelessness and calm prevails in the foreground, with the irregular forms of an abandoned fishing contraption half-submerged in the shallow water and a little dog lapping at the river to quench its thirst.
Cologne, the Arrival of a Packet-Boat: Evening
A year after presenting Dieppe at the Royal Academy, Turner exhibited Cologne. A former Roman colony and a free imperial city during the Holy Roman Empire, Cologne had long been a major commercial, educational, and religious center. Situated on the banks of the Rhine, Cologne was still largely medieval in appearance when Turner visited. Only a small section of the city is visible in his painting: the tower and spire of the church of Gross St. Martin piercing the evening sky, with defensive towers, walls, and the customs house leading up to it. The laboring women in peasant dress and the abandoned fishing contraption contribute to a sense of time standing still. The ferry boat carrying female tourists to shore is about to break the spell. One critic noted that “it is impossible to shut our eyes to the wonderful skill, and to the lightness and brilliancy which he [Turner] has effected.”
Broadhurst (?). James Wadmore. His sale, May 5–6, 1854, Christie’s, Lot 184, sold for 2,000 guineas to Grundy, probably for John Naylor, Leighton Hall, Welshpool, Montgomeryshire. Mrs. Naylor. Bought from her, together with Dieppe by Agnew and Sulley, through Dyer and Sons, for a total of £42,000. Knoedler. Frick, 1914.
Source: Paintings in The Frick Collection: American, British, Dutch, Flemish and German. Volume I. New York: The Frick Collection, 1968.
