Dort, or Dordrecht: The Dort Packet-Boat from Rotterdam Becalmed

Turner’s famous becalmed river scene of 1818, painted after he passed through Dordrecht on his second Continental tour the year before and exhibited to London at the Royal Academy in April 1818, where critics singled out its extraordinary luminosity. The record notes the central ferry teeming with passengers, cargo and activity, and that Turner set out to outdo the diffuse golden light of the celebrated Dutch painter Aelbert Cuyp, whose work British connoisseurs collected avidly; John Constable called it “the most complete work of genius I ever saw.” The painting is signed and dated lower right, “JMW Turner RA 1818,” and inscribed lower right, “Dort.” It is held in the Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection.