WILLIAM CALLOW, R.W.S. (LONDON 1812-1908 GREAT MISSENDEN)

A pencil sketch at Tate Britain of the present view, with slight variations in the barges and staffage, is dated '1844', and so it is likely that the present watercolour dates from Callow's early tour of Belgium in August 1844, when he set out to revisit the Rhine and the Moselle, and probably travelled through Namur on his way to Cologne.
He revisited the city in both 1867 and 1894, depicting it from a more traditional angle emphasising the looming presence of the fortress, barely visible here.